Shane Salwasser, 2L, was recently named an Equal Justice Works 2021 Rural Summer Legal Corps Student Fellow. The Rural Summer Legal Corps, a partnership between Equal Justice Works and the Legal Services Corporation, is a summer internship designed to help address the access-to-justice crisis for people living in rural areas. Shane was one of 35...
Category: Law School Spotlights
An internship through Drake’s Legislative Practice Center offers 3L Jancy Nielson the opportunity to promote policy changes that benefit underrepresented groups
Drake 3L Jancy Nielson is passionate about working to support and protect the rights of individuals who feel voiceless and invisible in the systems they navigate. Her dedication to such issues drove her decision to pursue a legal education that would provide not only a solid foundation in the law, but also opportunities to gain...
Meet Drake Law First-Year Student Elsie Villega
Elsie Villega is a first-year student from Brooklyn, New York. She attended The City College of New York as an undergraduate, majoring in English and Economics. Prior to coming to law school, Elsie was an educator and a stenographer/court reporter. Elsie is one of a small group of students who are completing their first year...
Students in Drake Law’s Entrepreneurial and Transactional Clinic help bring a vital business back to life in a rural Iowa town
When the Heartland Market chain closed its locations in Calhoun County in late 2019, the people of Manson, Iowa, found themselves without a grocery store. The nearest alternative was 30 minutes away in Fort Dodge. Facing this newly created “food desert” a group of residents formed the Manson Grocery Store Committee to identify ways to...
Clark Butler’s journey to law school takes him from Discovery Bay, California, to a new home – and career – in Des Moines
Clark Butler will finish a successful experience at Drake Law School this spring. At Drake, Clark has served as an Integrated Study Group Fellow, Law Student Ambassador, and Diversity Representative on the Student Bar Association. Clark attended Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota as an undergraduate and was accepted to Drake Law as a Cady...
Making a Case for the Wrongfully Convicted
Drake Law School second-year students Audrey Baumgartner and Andrea Hardesty are working to bring justice to the wrongfully convicted as interns with the Wrongful Convictions Division (WCD) of the Office of the State Public Defender. The division partners with the Midwest Innocence Project and is dedicated to exonerating Iowans convicted of crimes they did not...
Practice Makes Professional for this Recent Graduate: Kerrigan Owens credits education in and out of the classroom for helping launch her legal career
Kerrigan Owens (LW’20) took full advantage of the opportunities Drake Law had to offer through various internships, student organizations, and extracurricular activities. Last year, as president of the Student Bar Association, Owens and the Drake Law director of clinics and experiential learning, Suzie Pritchett, established a pop-up clinic to address the needs of young mothers at...
Hon. Mark W. Bennett continues his work to enhance justice in the 21st century as director of Drake Law School’s Institute for Justice Reform and Innovation
During his 25-year career as a federal district judge in the Northern District of Iowa, Mark W. Bennett tried civil and criminal cases in six different federal districts and frequently sat by invitation on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He authored dozens of published opinions and sentenced over 4,000 offenders to federal prison in...