The Public Service Program and PILA will host U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Bryan Dearinger, a 2005 Drake Law graduate. Dearinger will present this year’s Public Service Law Day talk at Drake University Law School on Monday, Oct. 8, at 9:30 a.m., Cartwright Room 213. His talk is titled “Public Service Is Not a Spectator Sport.”
Dearinger said, “I want to provide my own description of what public is and is not, in such a way that will motivate law students to go out and do it — not just contemplate it or talk about it. I plan to use my similar age, station, and background as a Drake law student to really push the students to give back through public service, connecting the message with my life and career, my past, present and future public service work (both government service and pro bono), and my belief that Drake can capture the corner on public service—can serve as a model—if we all answer the call to do it.”
His visit will also include the New Scholars Constitutional Law talk, “The Mandatory Pretrial Release Provision of the Adam Walsh Act Amendments: How ‘Mandatory’ Is It, and Is It Constitutional,” which will be held in Cartwright Hall Room 206 at 11:30 a.m.. Bryan will synthesize the views he expressed in his forthcoming article in the St. John’s Law Review. The program is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Constitutional Law Center.
Bryan was a Public Service Scholar at Drake University Law School, where he graduated Order of the Coif and in the top 10%. He also served as Editor in Chief of the Drake Law Review, and was the recipient of the H.G. Cartwright Writing Award, the Morris H. Haft Law Review Award, and the Edwin Earle Ferguson Public Service Gold Award.
During his time at Drake he worked as a summer associate for Galligan, Doyle & Reid P.C., as a law clerk for Legal Aid Services of Oregon, and as a research assistant for Professor Lovell and Professor Albert.
Upon graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Alan B. Johnson, United States District Court for the District of Wyoming (2005-06), and the Honorable James P. Donohue, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (2006-08). Thereafter he accepted a trial attorney position through the United States Department of Justice Honors Program.
He is currently a Trial Attorney with the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division at DOJ. Bryan also volunteers for two separate pro bono organizations in Washington D.C. He represents petitioner victims of domestic violence in civil protection cases in D.C. Superior Court as a pro bono trial attorney for the D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project, and volunteers at the family law and domestic violence legal clinic for WEAVE—Washington Empowered Against Violence.