Legislative Practice Center Internships

Drake Law School students pictured with the original Iowa Constitution in the Secretary of State's office.

Drake Law School is minutes from the Iowa State Capitol, providing numerous opportunities for internships in legislation, lobbying, and more.

The Legislative Practice Center arranges internships to give students practical experience and learn first-hand how the law-making process works.

Internships focus on lobbying, drafting bills and amendments, analyzing legislation, helping with budget preparations, monitoring administrative rules, and more.

Internship Placement

Internship placement is based on students' preferences and may include criteria such as party affiliation, subject area of interest, and preference for House or Senate.

Most second-year students are placed with a chair, vice chair or ranking member of a committee of their choice. Every effort is made to place students in internships where their abilities will be fully utilized.

Third-year students are placed with advocacy or state government organizations. 

Joshua Duden (LW'19) was a student lobbyist for the Legislative Practice Center and worked for Iowa's adoption of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act. Read the story.

For more information, contact Julie Smith, director of the Legislative Practice Center, at julie.smith@drake.edu.