"Serving as dean of Iowa Law has been a profound honor. As I prepare to step down from this role at the end of 2024, I am now much wiser and I am grateful to have had a role in stewarding an institution that will soon begin its 160th year.

The summer of 2018 was the pre-pandemic era, and it seems like a lifetime ago. Being dean of the law school through the pandemic was humbling, but I am grateful for every moment. Iowa Law’s rich history and tradition made it resilient at a very difficult time, but I am grateful that our strong history and tradition was never an obstacle to innovation and evolution.

When I arrived at Iowa Law, I set out to develop my vision organically by learning more about the strengths of the College of Law. It was not long before it became obvious that the school’s most wonderful and unusual quality was its focus on writing. Because the law school is nestled within the strongest public university in the nation for writing, it was natural to invest in this existing strength and make our commitment more explicit. In the past few years, we have expanded our outstanding legal writing faculty, developed more writing courses, expanded the mission of the law school’s Writing Center, and added positions to the editorial boards of our four student-edited law journals.

This idea of the 'Writing Law School' has taken hold and it is now a shared vision with strong momentum. As a result of our commitment, I am confident that Iowa Law is consistently producing better writers than any other law school in the country. Our outstanding employment numbers bear this out. Our jobs numbers regularly rank in the top 10 among the 200 law schools in the U.S. The best evidence is the courts: Judges tend to recognize strong writing when they see it and they have been hiring our graduates as law clerks in record numbers.

The Iowa Law community is warm and gracious. I have come to love this community during the past six years. I look forward to supporting the next dean and all the colleagues I now call friends. Thank you for supporting Iowa Law. Go Hawks!"

Kevin Washburn

N. William Hines Dean and Professor of Law