Roscoe Jones, Jr. Profile

• Drake Law School Dean since 2024
• Partner; Co-chair, Public Policy Group, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, DC
• Chief of Staff to Representative Abigail Spanberger
• Legislative Director to Senator Dianne Feinstein
• Senior Counsel to Senator Cory Booker
• Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to then-Chairman Patrick Leahy
• Special Counsel to then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez, U.S. Department of Justice
• Appellate Attorney in the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice
• Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington (Seattle)
• Clerk for Hon. Carl E. Stewart, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Clerk for Hon. Alexander Williams, Jr., U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Roscoe Jones is Dean of Drake University Law School. He is the 22nd dean and the first Black dean of the Law School. Before joining Drake Law, Dean Jones taught courses on mass incarceration, civil rights policy, and administrative law at Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Georgetown, George Washington, and University of Washington Law Schools and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Prior to his career in academia, Dean Jones practiced law as a partner and co-chair of the Public Policy Group in the Washington, DC office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, an international law firm, where he helped clients with governmental relations and congressional investigations. He served for a decade on Capitol Hill as chief of staff to Rep. Abigail Spanberger, legislative director to Senator Dianne Feinstein, senior counsel to Senator Cory Booker, and senior counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to then-Chairman Patrick Leahy. He worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as special counsel to then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez, appellate attorney in the Civil Rights Division, and assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Washington (Seattle). He was a Murnaghan Fellow at the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, Maryland. He clerked for Judge Carl E. Stewart on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Dean Jones chairs the national board of the American Constitution Society and is Secretary for the national board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He has served on the boards of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, Stanford Athletic Board, President Lincoln’s Cottage, and the advisory boards of the Center for Democracy and Technology and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a Stennis Fellow on Capitol Hill and Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at the Harvard Law School.

Dean Jones has received numerous honors. He was three times named to the Lawdragon list of the top 500 lawyers in America and Chambers USA ranked him as one of the nation’s top government relations specialists. He was named to The Hill’s Top Lobbyists list and the Top 100 Black Lawyers list by the National Black Lawyers Association. He received the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Brooks R. Burdette New Board Member Rising Impact Award and has been recognized by the Drake Black Law Students Association for his leadership.

Dean Jones graduated from Stanford University with high honors and the University of Virginia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & Law and co-founded the Center for the Study of Race and Law. He played football at Stanford University. He has been published in the Harvard Law and Policy Review.

• Three times named to the Lawdragon list of the top 500 lawyers in America
• Ranked as one of the nation’s top government relations specialists in Chambers USA
• Named to The Hill’s Top Lobbyists list and the Top 100 Black Lawyers list by the National Black Lawyers Association
• Received the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Brooks R. Burdette New Board Member Rising Impact Award
• Recognized by the Drake Black Law Students Association for outstanding leadership