Category: Law School Spotlights

Shannon Woods’ first job was at Hy-Vee. She grew up in Chariton, Iowa, which was home to one of Hy-Vee’s first corporate offices in the 1940s. And she worked for Hy-Vee all through college. So it made sense for Woods to return to Hy-Vee, Inc. as assistant general counsel and assistant secretary last year.

When Mallory Weiser began her internship with the Polk County Attorney’s Office, she had no idea she would end up on national television. The third-year Drake Law student assisted prosecutors in a first-degree murder case and sat at the counsel table during the trial, which was recently spotlighted on Dateline NBC.

Brent Pattison became inspired to be a lawyer for children while working at a homeless youth shelter in college. Now the director of the Joan and Lyle Middleton Center for Children's Rights and associate clinical professor at Drake Law School, Pattison advocates for children and teaches students interested in juvenile law.

As a third-year law student, Brianna Vaughn knew she was interested in probate. To get more experience in the field, she spent her last semester at Drake Law School working as a judicial intern for Polk County Associate Probate Judge Craig Block.

Food trucks can now operate in downtown Des Moines thanks to the work of Drake Law School students. In a Drake Law course on sustainability and law, students were tasked with writing ordinances for issues related to entrepreneurship, energy efficiency, waste management, and water management.

Poppy Davis, 2014 graduate of Drake Law School, interrupted a strong career path to attend law school. She has now been hired by SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education) as program director.

Before graduating from law school, Austin Mouw, a third-year law student at Drake, has already won two jury trials and a case before the Iowa Supreme Court.

Ryan Rohlfsen, LW’99, graduated law school having accomplished a lot: member of Drake Law Review, a C. Edwin Moore winner, the Rodney L. Hudson Supreme Court Oral Argument top advocate, and high honors.

Through an internship with the Iowa Appellate Defenders Office and working in the Advanced Criminal Law Clinic, Mouw tried (and won) his first jury trial and he argued in front of the Supreme Court of Iowa.

From Beijing to Des Moines, Brooke Yang has had quite the law school experience. She has gobbled up every experience possible in her first two years of law school – including a clerkship with a federal judge and an internship with a high profile firm in Hong Kong.