Category: Law School News

Law school students and faculty at Drake are trying to improve children's rights in Iowa by trying out a novel idea -- asking foster children themselves what laws need to be changed to better protect them, and then enlisting those foster children to lobby lawmakers to pass that legislation.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack delivered the keynote address at the Drake University Law School’s annual Supreme Court Celebration held March 10 at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown.

The American Judicature Society has announced the appointment of Seth S. Andersen as executive vice president.

Kendra Mills Arnold, a third-year Drake Law School student from Ankeny, presented oral arguments before the Iowa Court of Appeals March 8 at the Iowa Judicial Branch Building.

Stephen Rapp, LW'74, prosecutor of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), will return to Drake Law School April 9-10 to meet with students and faculty and deliver a lecture titled "The Compact Model in International Criminal Justice: The Special Court for Sierra Leone."

Professor Mary Dudziak recently gave a talk titled "Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey" as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Drake Constitutional Law Center.

At the Feb. 1 dedication of the transfer of National Bar Association archives to the Opperman Law Library, William S. Morris, the grandson of NBA co-founder James B. Morris, described the racial tensions in Des Moines during the 1920s. He cited appalling examples, such as when the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross at the foot of the Iowa State Capitol building in 1925.

While in Las Vegas last November for a Drake Law School alumni reception, something other than the Strip's legendary flashiness impressed Keith Miller, Drake's Ellis and Nelle Levitt distinguished professor of law.

Jack M. Balkin, the Knight professor of constitutional law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, spoke at Drake's observance of Constitution Day on Thursday, Sept. 21, to a standing room-only crowd in Room 213 of Cartwright Hall.

Mary L. Dudziak, the Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado professor of law, history and political science at the University of California Law School, will give a lecture at Drake Law School at 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, 2007.