University of Iowa College of Law

History

The law school was founded in 1865 by George Grover Wright and Chester C. Cole as an independent law school in the state capital of Des Moines as Iowa School of Law, but it moved to Iowa City and became part of the University of Iowa in 1868. It is the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River. Iowa's College of Law is said to have graduated the first female law student in the nation, Mary Beth Hickey, in 1873. The second woman to graduate from Iowa Law was Mary Humphrey Haddok in 1875, who later became the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. District and Circuit Courts. Alexander G. Clark, Jr. was the first African American to graduate from the law school, and his father Alexander G. Clark was the second. The senior Clark was ambassador to Liberia in 1890–1891.

When the Law Building was built in 1986, the project included a low-rise library, classrooms, auditoriums, moot courts, and administrative facilities. The architect was Gunnar Birkets & Associates and the structural engineer was Leslie E. Robertson Associates. The law library has the second-largest collection of volumes and volume-equivalents and the second or third largest number of unique individual cataloged volume and volume-equivalent titles among all law school libraries. It contains more than one million volumes and volume equivalents and is one of the largest and finest collections of print, microform, and electronic legal materials in the United States.

For more than 30 yrs, the law school has sponsored "Bridging the Gap," a minority pre-law conference held at the law school. It participates in, and supports, CLEO and PLSI.

The Boyd Law Building is located in the center of the campus on a bluff overlooking the Iowa River.

Law journals

The Law School has four academic journals, including the Iowa Law Review, founded in 1915 as the Iowa Law Bulletin. It is a scholarly legal journal, analyzing developments in the law and suggesting future paths for the law to follow. The Iowa Law Review ranks high among the top "high impact" legal periodicals in the country, and its subscribers include legal practitioners and law libraries throughout the world.

Iowa Law Review, ranked 14th overall law review in Washington and Lee University School of Law's index of legal journals.

Journal of Corporation Law, ranked 2nd overall law review in Washington and Lee University School of law's index of legal journals in the area of corporations and associations, and 60th overall law review in Washington and Lee University School of Law's index of legal journals.

Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems

Journal of Gender, Race & Justice

Employment

According to the Iowa College of Law's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 89.3% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment within nine months after graduation. Iowa's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 5.7%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2019 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.

Costs

The total tuition and mandatory fees for the 2024–2025 academic year are $32,512 for Iowa residents and $53,759 for non-resident students.

Notable alumni

James H. Andreasen (1958), Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court (1987–1998)

Bruce Braley (1983), U.S. Representative (D-IA)

Celeste F. Bremer (1977), U.S. Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, 1985-2021

Christopher Brown (author) (1991), science fiction writer

Daniel E. Burrows (2008), Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice (2026-present); Chief Deputy Attorney General of Kansas (2023-25)

James H. Carter (1960), Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court (1982–2006)

Alexander Clark (1884), U.S. Ambassador to Liberia; successfully litigated Iowa state desegregation case nearly ninety years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

George W. Clarke (1878), Iowa governor

Norm Coleman (1976), former U.S. Senator (R-MN)

Bill Crews (1977) Mayor of Melbourne, Iowa (1984-1998); Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, Washington, DC, (2003-2005,2011-2012); DC Zoning Administrator (2005-2007)

Lester J. Dickinson (1899), U.S. Representative (1919–1931), and U.S. Senator (1931–1937)

Rita B. Garman (1968), Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court

Theodore G. Garfield (1917), Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court (1941–1969), Chief Justice (1961–1969)

Notable faculty

Austin Adams (1875–1890), lecturer and Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court from 1876 to 1887.

David Baldus (1969–2011), notable academic in the field of Capital Punishment whose research was a key component in Furman v. Georgia (1972)

Willard L. Boyd (1954–2022), President Emeritus of the University of Iowa and the Field Museum of Natural History

Herbert F. Goodrich (1914–1922), co-founder of the Iowa Law Review, and circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1940–1947)

Herbert Hovenkamp (1986–2017), expert in Antitrust law

A. Leo Levin (1919–2015), also law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School

Eugene Wambaugh (1889–1892), introduced the Langdell case method to the University of Iowa Law School, and published the first Iowa casebook

List of deans

Source:

George Grover Wright (1865–1868), as co-founder of independent law school based in Des Moines

William Gardiner Hammond (1868–1881)

Lewis Williams Ross (1881–1887)

James M. Love (1887–1890)

Emlin McClain (1890–1901)

Charles Gregory (1901–1911)

Austin Scott (interim; 1911–1912)

Henry Wesley Dunn (interim; 1912–1914)

Charles Gregory (second term; 1915–1916)

Dudley Odell McGovney (1916–1921)

Henry Craig Jones (1921–1929)

Eugene A. Gilmore (1929–1935)

Wiley B. Rutledge (1935–1939)

Mason Ladd (1939–1966)

David H. Vernon (1966–1971)

Lawrence Blades (1971–1976)

N. William Hines (1976–2004)

Carolyn C. Jones (2004–2010)

Gail Agrawal (2010–2018)

Kevin Washburn (2018–2024)

Todd Pettys (interim; 2025)

Todd Pettys (2025–Pres.)