This semester, law students have been doing cutting-edge research into how the pandemic is impacting work laws, as it re-arranges workplaces, requires business closures, transforms the ways we get goods, decimates the service sector, and sickens millions of workers. 

Jason Rantanen, a professor at the UI College of Law, spent his Fall 2020 Obermann Fellow-in-Residency collecting and analyzing data about such cases. Rantanen, whose research area is intellectual property, specifically patent law, wants to help ensure that such cases are being decided objectively.

The University of Iowa College of Law has partnered with several other law schools across the United States to advocate for compassionate release during COVID-19, including clinical faculty at University of California Irvine and the University of Chicago. For each of these institutions, advocating for compassionate release not only provides incredible learning opportunities for their students; it also begins to establish a precedent within the courts that lengthy sentences and mandatory minimums must be reevaluated.

Iowa Law has established its human rights program as a stand out in a competitive and changing world, recently earning an A+ rating for Human Rights Law from preLaw Magazine, a National Jurist Publication.

The University of Iowa College of Law reinstated the Iowa Law Faculty Fellowship program this year, welcoming Professor Phoebe Jean-Pierre as Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Law for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Iowa Law welcomed eight new faculty for Fall 2020: three full-time faculty, two Legal Analysis, Writing and Research faculty, a new law library director, and two faculty beginning multi-year visits. We are excited to have this impressive group join us at the Boyd Law Building.