Allan Vestal, professor of law and former dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law, has been named dean of Drake University Law School. Vestal, a native of Iowa City, will begin his new position on June 1.

Vestal received both his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from Yale University and is a member of the American Law Institute.

He joined the University of Kentucky College of Law faculty in 2000 and served as dean for eight years. He returned to the faculty last July and is on sabbatical for the 2008-09 academic year.

Vestal began his career as a lawyer in Milwaukee, Wis., from 1979 to 1982. He went on to become an associate and partner in the Cedar Rapids law firm of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll PC from 1982 to 1989.

From 1989 to 2000, Vestal was on the faculty of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he taught in the areas of partnership and corporation law, commercial law and real estate. He also served as associate dean at Washington and Lee in his last year there.

Vestal will succeed Benjamin Ullem, a senior partner at the Des Moines law firm of Whitfield & Eddy PLC, who took a leave of absence from Drake’s Board of Trustees to serve a one-year term as dean in 2008-09.