AJS Director Allan Sobel reported to Drake’s Board of Counselors on a few of the successful collaborations between Drake and AJS in just the past few months. In his remarks he noted how fortunate AJS is to have a relationship with this Drake and most importantly its people—the faculty, staff, students and alumni. When Law School Dean Walker earlier articulated for the Board the school’s mission and pointed out its responsibility to the public to support justice system research and reform, he touched upon the heart of the AJS mission as well.
The successful collaborations to date include:
1. AJS and the members of the law school faculty jointly presented an educational program at the Iowa Judicial Institute in August 2003, addressing judicial opportunities to prevent wrongful convictions.
2. Professor Robert Rigg served on the faculty at a two day program in San Francisco in August at the AJS Annual Meeting on preventing wrongful convictions.
3. AJS secured commitments from nine authors to prepare and submit articles to the Drake Law Review to appear in a symposium issue to be published this Spring on criminal justice system reform. It is hoped that such an issue will be published annually with the assistance of AJS.
4. AJS helped arrange for ABA President Dennis Archer to be the commencement speaker at this year’s law school graduation.
5. AJS arranged for a February 17 debate between Professor Hunter Clark and Judge Deanell Reese Tacha at the request of the law school’s chapter of the Federalist Society. Judge Tacha is Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
6. Outstanding media coverage, including daily articles during the week of the Center’s dedication, extensive coverage in the Iowa Lawyer, and an entire issue of Judicature (and segments of other issues) highlighted the benefits of the affiliation.
7. AJS now employs six Drake students, five as interns and one as a paid employee. This number is expected to grow substantially.
8. AJS has engaged Professor Rachel Caufield of Drake to serve as research and programming consultant to the AJS Hunter Center for Judicial Selection. In her capacity working for AJS, Professor Caufield has been invited to participate as a moderator at a major judicial selection symposium to be held in New Orleans at Tulane University in March. Other faculty will include United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
9. AJS has agreed to engage Associate Dean David McCord as the first Director of the AJS National Jury Center, a partially endowed center of AJS activity. Professor McCord’s application for sabbatical leave has been approved and he will soon be starting at AJS. He will be working part-time initially but then will serve as full-time director during his sabbatical.
10. AJS leadership participated in a program in October at Drake for both law students and pre-law students discussing career opportunities in the law.
11. AJS Director Allan Sobel taught trial advocacy at Drake as an adjunct professor during the fall 2003 semester and was appointed to serve on the Board of Counselors.
AJS and Drake CollaborationsAJS Strategic Planning Concepts
