University of Iowa law professor Arthur Bonfield, credited with drafting numerous civil rights acts in Iowa, will deliver a lecture, “Making Administration of State Government More Responsible, Fair, and Effective,” at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in King Chapel at Cornell College. Prior to the speech, Cornell will award Bonfield an honorary degree.
Bonfield was the principal draftsman of three different Iowa Civil Rights Acts (1965, 1967, 1978), the Iowa Administrative Procedure Act (1974) and major amendments, the Iowa Open Meetings Law (1978) and major amendments to the Iowa Public Records Law (1984).
For more than 30 years he served the Iowa governor and legislature as General Counsel or Special Counsel on a variety of issues. At the federal level, he has served the Administrative Conference of the United States and held the chairmanship of important committees of the American Bar Association and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Among the awards he has received for his work as a professor, scholar and law reformer are the Iowa Civil Liberties Union Award for Outstanding Service to Civil Liberties, a Hancher-Finkbine UI Faculty Member Award, an Iowa State Board of Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, an Iowa State Bar Association President’s Award for Outstanding Meritorious Service to the Bar and Public, and the University of Iowa Collegiate Teaching Award in 1996.
Bonfield, who joined the University of Iowa in 1962, is John Murray professor of law and associate dean for research at the College of Law. His books include “State Administrative Rule Making” and “State and Federal Administrative Law.”