University of Iowa College of Law

The University of Iowa College of Law is one of the eleven professional graduate schools at the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1865, it is the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River. Iowa is currently ranked the 20th best law school in the United States according to the U.S. News and World Report Best Law School rankings.HistoryIowa's College of Law is said to have graduated the first female law student in the nation, Mary Beth Hickey, in 1873. The second woman to graduate from Iowa Law was Mary Humphrey Haddok in 1875, who later became the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. District and Circuit Courts.When the Law Building was built in 1986, the project included a low-rise library, classrooms, auditoriums, moot courts and administrative facilities. The architect behind this project was Gunnar Birkets & Associates and the structural engineer was Leslie E. Robertson Associates The law library has the second largest collection of volumes and volume equivalents and the second or third largest number of unique individual cataloged volume and volume equivalent titles among all law school libraries. It contains over one million volumes and volume equivalents and is one of the largest and finest collections of print, microform, and electronic legal materials in the United States.The law school has sponsored, for more than 30 yrs, “Bridging the Gap,” a minority pre-law conference held at the law school and participates in, and supports, CLEO and PLSI.