Justice Brent Appel joined the Drake Law faculty in 2022 after serving as a justice of the Iowa Supreme Court for sixteen years. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University, and his JD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he served on the board of editors of theCalifornia Law Review. During his time at Berkeley Law, he won the McBaine Moot Court competition and the Jamieson Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Advocacy. After graduation, Appel clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then served as first assistant attorney general and then as deputy attorney general of Iowa from 1979 to 1986. During this time, he argued and briefed four cases before the United States Supreme Court. At the time of his appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court in 2006, he was a partner at Wandro, Baer & Appel in Des Moines, where his practice focused on commercial litigation, employment law and personal injury.
In 2010, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Appel to the Federal Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, where he served until 2016. In 2022, Appel received The Iowa State Bar Association’s Rolland E. Grefe Pro Bono Publico Award for his leadership in advocating for access to justice for all Iowans throughout his career, and for his outstanding work as the chair of the Iowa Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission since it was formed in 2016.
Areas of Expertise
Professional Responsibility, State and Federal Constitutional Law, Employment Law, Public Law
Epidemiological and Legal Consideration in the Exclusion of Children with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Cytomegalavirus or Herpes Simplex Virus Infection from Group Care, 6 Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 1011 (1987).
