I am honored to step into this role and partner once again with our outstanding community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Drake Law has a storied history of excellence and is one of the top law schools in the country. I look forward to building upon our foundation of excellence while ensuring a seamless transition as we prepare for the Law School’s next great chapter.

Jerry Anderson
Interim Dean, Law School and Anita Calkins Distinguished Professor of Law

At Drake Law School, we recognize the importance of learning by doing. As one of the nation’s 25 oldest law schools, our founders established this institution to teach law in proximity to the courts so students could witness the law in action. From our top-tier legal clinic to our first-in-the-nation trial practicum to our Institute for Justice Reform and Innovation to our centers of excellence, we provide a superior practical training experience. Our frequently cited journals publish exemplary articles that are practical and relevant to the legal community. And our innovative curriculum prepares you with the knowledge, skills, and global perspective essential to practice law effectively in the 21st Century.

At Drake Law, we raise the bar.

• We raise the bar by providing an exceptional learning environment in a welcoming, inclusive community distinguished by accessible and accomplished faculty, dedicated staff, and a collegial student body.
• We raise the bar with small class sizes that allow students to engage closely with one another and our professors.
• We raise the bar with our faculty of leading scholars, dedicated to teaching and producing legal scholarship that shapes public discourse.
• We raise the bar with a learning environment comprised of excellent students from diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
• We raise the bar with our 7,000-strong law alumni who have made extraordinary achievements in the legal profession and who are eager to share their experience and expertise with students.
• And we raise the bar with our location in the capital city of Des Moines, which provides our students with unmatched access to the bench, bar, legislature, and leading companies.

The legal profession is a career choice that comes with a profound responsibility: lawyers protect rights, fight for justice, and interpret, or even make, the law. Our graduates practice in law firms of all sizes, work as in-house lawyers for corporations, hold positions in government and nonprofits, and serve as judges and elected officials.

Biography

Early in his career, Professor Jerry Anderson co-authored an Environmental Law coursebook with an innovative approach - teaching students through the use of simulation exercises that require them to actually research and use the material to advise and represent clients. The book won two national awards; now in its fifth edition, it has been adopted across the country, in law schools such as Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, and Georgetown. His second book takes a similarly practice-oriented approach to Property Law.

Professor Anderson's research has also broken new ground. His recent article on environmental penalties exposes deep disparity in the amount of fines across the country. His earlier work on zoning boards found that citizens appointed to bodies in control of land use decisions failed to represent a cross-section of the community and were typically biased in favor of developers. Through a series of articles, Professor Anderson became one of the country's foremost authorities on public access rights to private land. In addition, his thorough exploration and critique of Iowa's administrative rulemaking process has been cited by courts and commentators.

In addition to his environmental law practice before entering academia, Professor Anderson helped form the public interest law firm Midwest Environmental Justice Advocates, which litigated several important cases involving water quality, among others.

Anderson served as dean of Drake Law School for eight years, helping to improve student outcomes and leading the school to greater national prominence.

Beyond the Classroom

Beyond the classroom, Anderson’s legal research has shaped national legal policy on environmental penalty disparities, administrative rulemaking, and public land access rights. He is an active member of the American Law Institute, the American College of Environmental Lawyers, and the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, as well as a fellow in the American Bar Foundation.

Areas of Expertise

• Administrative Law
• Environmental Law
• Natural Resources Law
• Property

Education

• JD, Stanford Law School, Order of the Coif
• BS, University of Kansas (with distinction)

Selected Publications

• Commons, Climate, and the Constitution, 71 Drake Law Review 255 (2025) (invited symposium paper).
• Property Law: Practice, Problems and Perspectives (co-author) (3d ed., Aspen Publishing, 2024).
• Environmental Law Practice: Problems and Exercises for Skills Development (co-author) (5th ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2025).
• Environmental Penalties: Discretion and Disparity, 42 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 1 (2023) (with A. Vaughan).
• Sailing the Stormy Seas: What I Learned About Deaning from Captain Aubrey, 51 University of Toledo Law Review 251 (2022).
• Devil in the Details: Structural Racism in Administrative Hearings, Yale Journal on Regulation, Symposium on Racism in Administrative Law (July 2020) (online).
• Neil Hamilton, Aldo Leopold, and the Ethics of Conservation, 24 Drake Journal of Agricultural Law 199 (2019).