Clinic Managing Attorney & Director of Field Placements - 100052

Department Summary:

The Drake University Law School is the only law school in the state capital and one of the Nation's top law schools. The Law School blends a rich heritage with innovative technology and forward-thinking curriculum, including the nation’s only First-Year Trial Practicum. Located in the heart of Des Moines, our law school offers an unmatched educational experience through cutting-edge facilities, a top-tier legal clinic, and robust connections with the legal community.

Since its founding in 1865 by Iowa Supreme Court Justices George Wright and Chester Cole, Drake Law School has stood among the 25 oldest law schools in the country. Our founders envisioned a place where students could witness the law in action, fostering a tradition of real-world, practical experience that we continue to uphold today. Now is an exciting time to join the Law School as it begins a new chapter and innovative vision for the future. www.drake.edu/law

Job Summary:

The Clinic Managing Attorney and Director of Field Placements is a full-time professional staff position with limited teaching responsibilities that provides operational leadership for Drake Law School’s Legal Clinic and administrative leadership for the Law School’s field placement program. The position manages the daily operations of the Legal Clinic, including budgeting, grants management, trust account administration, compliance with legal and ethical requirements, personnel supervision, technology systems, client services infrastructure, and building operations. The position also supervises clinic administrative staff, develops operational policies and procedures, and serves as the primary operational liaison for internal and external stakeholders.

In addition, the position directs all aspects of the Law School’s field placement program, including teaching internship seminars, administering student placements, ensuring compliance with ABA Standards, maintaining internship databases and evaluation systems, developing new field placement opportunities, supporting community partners and supervising attorneys, conducting site visits, and overseeing assessment and continuous improvement of experiential education programs. Working collaboratively with the Executive Director of Legal Clinics and Experiential Learning, the position helps ensure the effective delivery of Drake Law School’s clinical and experiential education mission.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an ABA-accredited law school.

• Admission to practice law in Iowa or eligibility for admission.

• Significant experience practicing law, including litigation or client representation.

• Demonstrated administrative or management experience.

• Strong organizational, financial, and project management skills.

• Experience supervising professional staff or legal personnel.

• Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.

• Ability to work collaboratively with faculty, staff, students, alumni, courts, and community partners.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities while ensuring compliance with legal, ethical, and accreditation requirements.

• Commitment to experiential legal education and student success.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Seven or more years of progressively responsible legal practice experience.

• Judicial, prosecutorial, public defense, or significant litigation experience.

• Experience supervising legal clinics, legal services organizations, or complex legal operations.

• Experience teaching or mentoring law students or attorneys.

• Experience administering field placement, externship, or experiential education programs.

• Knowledge of ABA Standards governing experiential education and legal clinics.

• Experience managing grants, budgets, trust accounts, or nonprofit/legal organization finances.

• Experience with legal practice management systems (such as CLIO), Symplicity, or similar technology platforms.

• Demonstrated success building partnerships with courts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and members of the legal profession.

• Experience leading organizational change and implementing operational improvements.

Job Duties:

• 40% - Field Placement Program: Collaborate and coordinate with CDO; Advise students on internship enrollment, process, and issues that arise during internships; Design and teach corresponding internship seminar (fall, spring, summer); Maintain electronic system in Symplicity for searching all available internship opportunities; Regularly review existing opportunities for consistency with ABA standards and appropriateness for students; Create and maintain an internship application process (Symplicity) across all field placement opportunities; Advertise field placement opportunities to prospective and existing students (info sessions each semester); Serve as primary point of contact for faculty and community-based lawyers / organizations that want to create and host a field placement student for credit – guide proposal through curriculum approval process; Propose new internships to curriculum committee and guide faculty approval process; Select and train site supervisors to comply with ABA Standard 304(d); Administer all mid-semester and end of semester evaluations to site supervisors; Conduct periodic site visits of all internship sites to comply with ABA Standard 304(d); Create “contemporaneous faculty guided reflection” opportunities to comply with ABA Standard 304(d) and provide feedback on written reflections; In consultation with the Director, develop policies and procedures related to internships more generally, e.g. remote placement policy, in-house counsel or for profit internship policy, conflict of interest, etc. - (Essential)
• 25% - Clinic Operations: Oversee and monitor Clinic activities including budgets, accounts, client services, personnel, and procurement; Provide case coverage to clinic faculty on leave / vacation / illness; Supervises and maintains use of client information system (CLIO); Taking primary responsibility for the physical operations of the Neal and Bee Smith Law center building; Serving as primary building contact for main University facilities; Serves as a liaison with Drake Public Safety to ensure safety needs of students, faculty, staff, and clients are met; Establish and coordinate marketing/communication plan for external stakeholders (community members), prospective students, and current students; Assists with the production and distribution of newsletters and brochures and assists in developing and making presentations as necessary to market the work of the clinical law and externship programs and develop a network of supporters - (Essential)
• 15% - Policy Development & Compliance: Develop and implement administrative procedures to support all aspects of ethical and competent clinical practice including communication, file maintenance, archiving and personnel; Manages clinical application and lottery process; Develops and manages content for the Clinic Student Handbook; Develops and supervises conflict of interest policies for experiential programs; Manages student admission to practice (Student Practice License); Gathers and analyzes data required by malpractice insurance carrier. Responds to requests for data information from other clinical programs, Drake University, and public and private agencies; Manages the Legal Clinic’s Trust Account in line with the rules and policies of Client Security Commission of the Office of Professional Regulation; Selects and employs technology for management of trust account and work with Drake Accounting to engage in account reconciliation; Management (compliance with ethical rules) of file (digital and paper) archives - (Essential)
• 12% - Staff Supervision: Oversee recruitment, selection, development, and retention of clinical staff; Hold regular staff meetings among clinic administrative staff; Supervises paralegal and receptionist personnel in alignment with Clinic objectives. Manages assignments and workflow, approves timesheets and leave requests, and conducts performance evaluations. - (Essential)
• 8% - Finance & Budgeting: Grant writing, management, and reporting; Oversee approval of case-related expenditures (e.g. expert witness fees, etc.); Work with Law School Budget Manager to project fiscal year budgeting; Administers the budget of the Clinical Law Program. Gathers data needed for grant applications and evaluation. - (Essential)

Salary and Benefits:

At Drake, we are proud to offer our employees, their spouses, and eligible dependents a comprehensive benefits package, which includes a wide range of core benefits, perks, and discounts. If you are exploring a job with Drake University, we invite you to spend a little time with our Drake Benefits Guide 2026. One of our popular policies provides a tuition waiver for Drake employees, their spouses, and eligible dependents. Drake also participates in not one, but two tuition exchange programs available to dependent children. Tuition Benefits