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University of Iowa intern program shapes prosecutors, judges
‘Scary but exciting concept’ to prosecute misdemeanors as a student
May. 18, 2025 6:00 am, Updated: May. 19, 2025 7:46 am
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Many future prosecutors and judges learned life and legal lessons during a University of Iowa College of Law intern program that helped shape their demeanor and ethics, gain experience in preparing and arguing a case and learning how to balance justice and punishment.
Sixth Judicial Associate District Judge Jason Burns, who was an intern in 2001 in the Linn County Attorney’s Office, said he learned how to handle himself in court and prepare a case, including submitting evidence and presenting witnesses. But the biggest lesson he learned was outside the courtroom.
“Most of the time people have very few interactions with the court system,” Burns said. “Knowing that you were likely the only person they (defendants in traffic or misdemeanor court) would deal with in court, it was important to listen and handle each situation fairly and with empathy and understanding, even if you were attempting to hold them accountable (for their actions).”
Burns said he has continued to follow that lesson while on the bench.
“Treating people fairly and with respect is often as important as the outcome,” he noted.
Janet Lyness, who retired as the Johnson County Attorney, was an intern in 1988 and said the program changed the trajectory of her law career. She hadn’t planned to be a prosecutor — it was “just a summer job” for her.
Instead of pursuing civil rights law, she decided her path was to help victims of crime and represent them in court. That internship in the Johnson County Attorney’s Office led to her being the elected top prosecutor of that office 18 years later.
On May 27, this year’s class of the Iowa Prosecutor Intern Program, which started in the 1970s, will certify law interns to practice in county attorney’s offices across Iowa. The interns are paid an hourly rate, which varies depending on the county. The Iowa Attorney General Office also reimburses the counties for some portion of the hourly rate.
This two-day certification class allows the interns to handle cases of simple misdemeanors like OWIs, thefts, domestic violence and assaults, said June Tai, UI clinical law professor and director of field placement programs. Interns could be handling pleas and trials, which are supervised by an assistant prosecutor.
The only other intern program similar to this is one at Drake University’s law school in Des Moines.
The interns must be second-year students and be in good standing to be accepted for the class, Tai said. The class usually has seven to 10 students each year, and various counties including Johnson, Linn, Clinton, Des Moines, Wapello and Jackson have offered internships in the past.
“This has created a pipeline for (future) prosecutors in the state, Tai noted. “Many of them have goals of being prosecutors but others are unsure of what they want and it’s a good opportunity for them to try this out. They all will have close mentoring, gain public speaking skills, become familiar with state laws and different issues and develop empathy for the people involved.”
Some of the interns pursue placements in their “home counties,” which many times are rural counties that need lawyers, and it might encourage others to practice in those areas, Tai said.
Lyness, now an instructor for the certification class, said the class goes over the responsibilities of a county attorney, which includes handling misdemeanors, felonies, juvenile and civil cases. The class also reviews ethics, criminal procedures and evidence rules. Once students get into their internships, they handle simple misdemeanor cases before a magistrate judge.
Depending on the prosecutor’s office, the students may also get to second chair a felony case, Lyness noted. The county attorney offices usually give the interns different case experiences.
Lyness recalled being a second chair to a prosecutor during her internship in a sex abuse case. Those can be tough cases to prove, but this one came down to an expert witness about the DNA evidence, which helped secure a conviction.
Lyness stays in contact with the interns throughout the summer and coordinates events for them such as going to watch oral arguments of the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals. They also usually tour the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation crime lab.
Intern program ‘pivotal’
Assistant Linn County Attorney Ryan Decker, who was intern with the office in 2016, said he also had the opportunity to work with Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, who was an assistant county attorney at the time, on a resentencing of a juvenile convicted of murder due to an error in his sentencing.
“Part of the work I did was to figure out if Iowa case law allowed the court to sentence a juvenile to a mandatory minimum sentence,” Decker said. “That area of the law was uncertain, at the time, due to appellate court rulings.”
Decker, through his research, was able to provide Maybanks with a legal basis to request a mandatory minimum sentence in that case.
He prosecuted about 50 bench trials, which helped him learn how question witnesses, prepare witnesses for testimony and how to best prove his case.
Decker said another important lesson he learned is that prosecutors can fight “tooth and nail for justice” in one case, but in another can also use their discretion to offer leniency, giving an offender a path to a better life.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Kevin McKeever, a 2000 intern with the Johnson County Attorney’s Office, recalled that Lyness, who was the intern adviser then, reminded the interns how the laws and prosecution decisions impact “real” people.
Lyness pointed out they should be thinking about “not only what the law is and what it requires, but also what the law is intended to do” to determine a fair and just resolution. Just because the penalty for a certain law might be up to one year in jail, that doesn’t mean the person should get that in every case. There are other factors to consider, and he said he follows that to this day when making decisions as a judge.
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Keisha Cretsinger, the statewide prosecution section chief, said during her 2001 internship in Henry County she had “authority and independence” with handling the entire simple misdemeanors docket. The office had only two prosecutors, and they needed the help.
Cretsinger said being a prosecutor wasn’t her career choice at the time. She had planned to pursue corporate or family law, but she knew this program would provide valuable experience.
Her husband got a job in Wisconsin and there was hiring freeze in the counties for prosecutors, so she started handling medical malpractice cases until she was hired by the St. Croix County, Wis., District Attorney’s Office. A few years later, she and her husband moved back to Iowa and she got a job the Story County Attorney’s Office. She joined the Iowa Attorney General’s Office in 2014.
The intern program was “pivotal” to her career because she may not have been a prosecutor without that experience, Cretsinger said.
Eighth Judicial Associate District Judge Jennifer Slocum Bailey, a 2004 intern in Linn County and a 2005 intern with Johnson County, majored at the University of Northern Iowa in criminology and was always interested in criminal law. After being in the intern program and experiencing two different offices with fast-paced work, she was “confident” after graduation in pursuing being a prosecutor.
During her internship, she handled the weekly bench — non-jury trial docket, which included domestic abuse cases, Bailey said. Many cases are “much more serious than the charge level would suggest, and this is invariably true for misdemeanor domestic abuse.”
“I received invaluable experience working with victims of domestic abuse that helped me later in my career,” Bailey said.
The varied experience she had as an intern helped shape her as a lawyer, and then when she was appointed as a judge in 2016.
New interns
Noah Gaber, 29, of Iowa City, will be an intern in the Johnson County Attorney’s Office. He wasn’t specifically planning to be a prosecutor — his goal is to do government or public service law work.
After receiving his bachelor’s in political science, he worked a few jobs, including being a loan officer at a bank, but didn’t find it “rewarding,” Gaber said. He then decided to go to law school and is interested in administrative or environmental law, but he knew other intern opportunities wouldn’t provide this “unique” experience of actually practicing law.
Sara Saiz, 27, was a lawyer in Panama and originally came to the United States to pursue a master’s in law at Georgetown University. She came to the UI last August to pursue a doctorate in law. She plans to be a prosecutor.
Saiz applied for the intern program because of her interest in criminal law.
“The chance to go to court and try real cases appealed most to me,” Saiz said. “It is scary but an exciting concept that we get the chance to have real court experience before being licensed. I firmly believe in trying everything until you find your calling and that’s why I knew this internship was an excellent opportunity for me.”
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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