Our faculty are famous for having equally strong commitments to teaching and to undertaking scholarship that matters. In fact, the Iowa Law faculty is nationally recognized for its scholarly productivity and well-known for its interdisciplinary interests. A number of faculty members have Ph.D.s, and the faculty publishes regularly in history, social science, and general humanities journals as well as traditional law reviews.
Our faculty list includes those temporarily away on visits to other institutions, on reduced teaching loads, and on phased retirement. Separately listed are members with emeritus status; adjunct and visiting faculty who are scheduled to teach during the academic year, or have taught during the previous two academic years and are expected to have a continuing relationship with Iowa Law; and our courtesy faculty who hold complimentary appointments at the College of Law.
Full-time Faculty
Patricia Nassif Acton
Title/Position
Clinical Professor of Law Emerita
Professor Acton has taught Clinical Law, Commercial Transactions, Arts & Entertainment Law, Trusts and Estates, and the Legal History of Iowa.
Gail Agrawal
Title/Position
Dean Emerita and F. Wendell Miller Professor of Law
Dean Agrawal was the 17th dean of The University of Iowa College of Law serving from 2010 - 2018.
John S. Allen
Title/Position
Clinical Professor Emeritus
Professor Allen and his students represented clients before courts and administrative agencies in a broad range of civil matters. Much of his work has focused on employment law, including employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and unemployment insurance cases.
Patrick B. Bauer
Title/Position
Professor of Law Emeritus
Professor Bauer studies Iowa Debt Collection Law and Iowa Real Estate Financing Law. His current research includes appellate review of findings of fact, mortgage foreclosure deficiency judgments, Iowa's homestead exemption, federal farm bankruptcy legislation in the 1930s, and federalization of debt collection law in the 1990s.
Arthur E. Bonfield
Title/Position
Allan D. Vestal Chair and Associate Dean Emeritus
Professor Bonfield joined the Iowa Law School faculty in 1962 and has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee Law Schools, and at the Law Schools of Hofstra University and Lewis and Clark. Until August 2014, Professor Bonfield served as Associate Dean for Research, building the Iowa Law Library into the best public law library in the nation.
Patricia A. Cain
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair Emerita
After graduating from law school, Professor Cain practiced law in Montgomery, Alabama, specializing in tax law. In 1974, she joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, where she taught for 17 years. During this period of time she taught as a Visiting Professor at a number of different law schools, including Wisconsin, Tulane, and the University of Southern California. In 1991, she joined the law faculty at the University of Iowa. She was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1996 to 1999 and Associate Dean for Admissions from 2001-2003. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Professor Cain served as Interim Provost of the University and then as Vice Provost until her retirement.
Ann Laquer Estin
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair in Law Emerita
Professor Estin focused primarily in family law and international family law. As a member of the International Society of Family Law, she has served as an expert observer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in connection with several of the Hague Children’s Conventions. In addition, she teaches courses in contracts and Federal Indian Law.
Affiliated Faculty
Patricia Nassif Acton
Title/Position
Clinical Professor of Law Emerita
Professor Acton has taught Clinical Law, Commercial Transactions, Arts & Entertainment Law, Trusts and Estates, and the Legal History of Iowa.
Gail Agrawal
Title/Position
Dean Emerita and F. Wendell Miller Professor of Law
Dean Agrawal was the 17th dean of The University of Iowa College of Law serving from 2010 - 2018.
John S. Allen
Title/Position
Clinical Professor Emeritus
Professor Allen and his students represented clients before courts and administrative agencies in a broad range of civil matters. Much of his work has focused on employment law, including employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and unemployment insurance cases.
Patrick B. Bauer
Title/Position
Professor of Law Emeritus
Professor Bauer studies Iowa Debt Collection Law and Iowa Real Estate Financing Law. His current research includes appellate review of findings of fact, mortgage foreclosure deficiency judgments, Iowa's homestead exemption, federal farm bankruptcy legislation in the 1930s, and federalization of debt collection law in the 1990s.
Arthur E. Bonfield
Title/Position
Allan D. Vestal Chair and Associate Dean Emeritus
Professor Bonfield joined the Iowa Law School faculty in 1962 and has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee Law Schools, and at the Law Schools of Hofstra University and Lewis and Clark. Until August 2014, Professor Bonfield served as Associate Dean for Research, building the Iowa Law Library into the best public law library in the nation.
Patricia A. Cain
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair Emerita
After graduating from law school, Professor Cain practiced law in Montgomery, Alabama, specializing in tax law. In 1974, she joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, where she taught for 17 years. During this period of time she taught as a Visiting Professor at a number of different law schools, including Wisconsin, Tulane, and the University of Southern California. In 1991, she joined the law faculty at the University of Iowa. She was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1996 to 1999 and Associate Dean for Admissions from 2001-2003. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Professor Cain served as Interim Provost of the University and then as Vice Provost until her retirement.
Ann Laquer Estin
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair in Law Emerita
Professor Estin focused primarily in family law and international family law. As a member of the International Society of Family Law, she has served as an expert observer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in connection with several of the Hague Children’s Conventions. In addition, she teaches courses in contracts and Federal Indian Law.
Visiting and Adjunct Faculty
Thomas P. Gallanis
Title/Position
Allan D. Vestal Chair in Law Emeritus
Professor Thomas P. Gallanis held the Allan D. Vestal Chair in Law. He became an emeritus faculty member in 2023. Professor Gallanis specializes in trust, succession, property, and fiduciary law, with a particular interest in their comparative and cross-border aspects, and also is a historian of English and European law.
N. William Hines
Title/Position
Joseph F. Rosenfield Professor and Dean Emeritus
Professor Hines completed his phased retirement in 2014, but he continues teaching part-time.
Herbert Hovenkamp
Title/Position
Ben and Dorothy Willie Chair Emeritus
Professor Hovenkamp is a recognized expert and prolific author in the area of Antitrust law. He joined the Iowa law faculty in 1986. Before coming to Iowa, Professor Hovenkamp was Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and prior to that he was Instructor, Department of History and American Civilization, University of Texas.
Nicholas Johnson
Title/Position
Adjunct Instructor
Nicholas Johnson is among roughly 700 individuals listed in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (2009), described by the publisher as “leading figures in the history of American law, from the colonial era to the present day.” He taught at the College of Law from 1981 until his retirement in 2014.
Carolyn Jones
Title/Position
Dean Emerita and Orville L. and Ermina D. Dykstra Chair in Income Tax Law Emerita
Carolyn Jones joined the University of Iowa College of Law in 2004 as the 16th Dean of the College. She served as Dean until 2010 when she returned to the faculty of Iowa Law. The period on which much of her works focuses is World War II and the postwar era when much of the current income tax system developed. She has contributed to eight books on tax law and is the author of numerous scholarly articles on the issue. Dean Jones took emerita status in 2021.
Nancy Jones
Title/Position
Adjunct Instructor Emerita
Nancy Jones is the former director of the law school's Writing Resource Center, the first writing center in the country to be housed in a law school and devoted exclusively to the law school community. She was granted emeritus status in 2026. Prior to that, she taught writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and to K-12 public school teachers (through the Iowa Writing Project). She also was on the staff of the NEA-funded Institute on Writing at the University of Iowa (1978-1981), designed for directors of freshman composition from across the US. In an earlier life, she taught English to junior high and high school students in Spain, Germany, and England.
Sheldon F. Kurtz
Title/Position
David H. Vernon Professor of Law Emeritus
Professor Kurtz joined the University of Iowa College of Law Faculty in 1973. Since then, he has been teaching at the College of Law, except for a one year visiting professorship at the University of Virginia Law School and a two-year stint as Dean of the Florida State University College of Law. He also holds an appointment in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Professor Kurtz became an emeritus faculty member in 2022 and continues teaching part-time.
Retired and Emeriti Faculty
Patricia Nassif Acton
Title/Position
Clinical Professor of Law Emerita
Professor Acton has taught Clinical Law, Commercial Transactions, Arts & Entertainment Law, Trusts and Estates, and the Legal History of Iowa.
Gail Agrawal
Title/Position
Dean Emerita and F. Wendell Miller Professor of Law
Dean Agrawal was the 17th dean of The University of Iowa College of Law serving from 2010 - 2018.
John S. Allen
Title/Position
Clinical Professor Emeritus
Professor Allen and his students represented clients before courts and administrative agencies in a broad range of civil matters. Much of his work has focused on employment law, including employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and unemployment insurance cases.
Patrick B. Bauer
Title/Position
Professor of Law Emeritus
Professor Bauer studies Iowa Debt Collection Law and Iowa Real Estate Financing Law. His current research includes appellate review of findings of fact, mortgage foreclosure deficiency judgments, Iowa's homestead exemption, federal farm bankruptcy legislation in the 1930s, and federalization of debt collection law in the 1990s.
Arthur E. Bonfield
Title/Position
Allan D. Vestal Chair and Associate Dean Emeritus
Professor Bonfield joined the Iowa Law School faculty in 1962 and has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee Law Schools, and at the Law Schools of Hofstra University and Lewis and Clark. Until August 2014, Professor Bonfield served as Associate Dean for Research, building the Iowa Law Library into the best public law library in the nation.
Patricia A. Cain
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair Emerita
After graduating from law school, Professor Cain practiced law in Montgomery, Alabama, specializing in tax law. In 1974, she joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, where she taught for 17 years. During this period of time she taught as a Visiting Professor at a number of different law schools, including Wisconsin, Tulane, and the University of Southern California. In 1991, she joined the law faculty at the University of Iowa. She was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1996 to 1999 and Associate Dean for Admissions from 2001-2003. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Professor Cain served as Interim Provost of the University and then as Vice Provost until her retirement.
Ann Laquer Estin
Title/Position
Aliber Family Chair in Law Emerita
Professor Estin focused primarily in family law and international family law. As a member of the International Society of Family Law, she has served as an expert observer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in connection with several of the Hague Children’s Conventions. In addition, she teaches courses in contracts and Federal Indian Law.