Des Moines law firm dedicates $100,000 to DrakeJanuary 28, 2005

For more than 30 years, attorneys at McKee, Voorhees & Sease have played a significant role in developing the intellectual property program at Drake University Law School. On Feb. 3, 2005, the Des Moines-based law firm will further commit to developing this unique area of law practice by increasing an endowed scholarship to $100,000.For the better part of three decades attorneys such as Edmund J. Sease, Michael G. Voorhees and Jeffrey D. Harty have spent hundreds of hours teaching would-be lawyers about the finer points of patent, trademark and copyright law. ‘They have expanded our intellectual property curriculum to a point where a student interested in intellectual property knows he or she can get a rich array of courses, expertly taught,’ says Law School Dean David S. Walker.’Drake University is attractive to those who want to study intellectual property because of our courses and who’s teaching them,’ Walker says. ‘But we’re also a private law school and we need to be competitive. With this scholarship, McKee, Voorhees & Sease will help us attract and retain good intellectual property law students.’And because McKee, Voorhees & Sease has made similar contributions to the University of Iowa and Creighton, this scholarship also communicates to the whole legal community that, regardless of affiliations, they recognize a need and are willing to support legal education, particularly in a field that is so vital to the state and our nation,’ Walker says. ‘I was a member of Drake’s first class in patent law in 1966. And I have been teaching intellectual property courses at Drake for more than 25 years,’ says Edmund J. Sease. ‘As a firm specializing in intellectual property law, and with one-third of our attorneys having studied at Drake University, this is a way for us to give back to the university and the law school in particular.’For more information about Drake University Law School, log on to www.law.drake.edu. For more information about McKee, Voorhees & Sease, log on to www.ipmvs.com or call 515-288-3667.