Welcome

Iowa Law alumni and friends,

As I start my two-year term as Iowa Law’s dean, I’ve been reflecting on our history and on the principles that bind generations of our alumni together.

Iowa Law traces its origins to a time of extraordinary political division. It was just two months after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant, with the nation still reeling from the Civil War, that the idea for Iowa Law was born. The University of Iowa had been established 18 years earlier, but it didn’t offer legal training. In June 1865, Justice George Wright and other members of the Iowa Supreme Court began urging lawmakers and university leaders to create what ultimately would become the University of Iowa College of Law. Happily, they answered the call.

Today, Iowa Law owes its great strength to more than a century and a half of support from students, donors, and Iowa taxpayers. For the students themselves, it’s clear enough what they receive in exchange for their tuition dollars: a first-rate legal education at one of the country’s premier public universities. But what about donors and taxpayers, who help take some of the load off students’ shoulders—what are they getting out of the deal?

They’re getting a solid return on an investment in the rule of law. We produce graduates who are committed to process: When others are ready to pronounce quick verdicts, our alumni are thinking about the process by which winners and losers are chosen. We produce graduates who understand that the best path forward cannot reliably be discovered unless we’re all free to speak our minds. We produce graduates who are committed to equality: When others want to draw distinctions between people for bad reasons, our alumni remember the implications of our common humanity. We produce graduates who are committed to all our basic constitutional principles and to the institutions that our state and federal constitutions create.

Through these and other commitments, those who carry the Iowa Law name help their communities keep faith with principles that are built for the long haul—principles that help a fractured nation work together for the common good. Justice Wright set us on that path as the Civil War neared its end, and we remain on that same path today.

As you read through the pages that follow, please join us in celebrating the many people who bring Iowa Law’s mission to life in so many wonderful ways!

Todd Pettys, Dean
H. Blair & Joan V. White Chair in Civil Litigation