Two U. Iowa College of Law alumni are working on high-profile cases that have garnered national attention.

Aaron Goldstein, who graduated in 2000, is on the defense team in the federal trial against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell the open U.S. Senate seat of Barack Obama after he was elected president. John Bouma, a 1960 graduate, has been hired to defend the Arizona governor’s office in the seven lawsuits against the state’s new controversial immigration law filed so far.

Goldstein, a Chicago native, has been an active member of the defense side of the ongoing Blagojevich trial that began June 3. The former Illinois governor has pleaded not guilty to scheming to sell or trade Obama’s former Senate seat and plotting to launch a racketeering operation in the governor’s office, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m well aware this is a high-profile case,” Goldstein said. “But in the end, profile or none, this man is facing serious consequences that I do not want to happen to him.”

The young attorney has received press about his work on the case. After the prosecution played several tapes to the court, Goldstein worked to get the approval to play more tapes that put the former politician in a better light. He also pressured a prosecution witness to admit to lying to an FBI agent.

Goldstein said in a telephone interview with The Daily Iowan that he became involved in the case through working in the same building as Blagojevich’s lead defense attorney.

His team has had to sort through 9 million pages and hundreds of hours of tapes to make a solid defense, he said.

Despite his notoriety, the defendant deserves the same treatment as someone out of the spotlight, Goldstein said.

“Someone’s freedom and liberty is on the line in the end,” he noted.

His passion for law drove him to enroll in the UI College of Law after graduating from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign in 1997. He said he decided on Iowa mainly because of the campus and the quality of the law school and because it was obvious professors genuinely cared about their students.

Now, 10 years after gradating, Goldstein said being a lawyer allows himself to be a “freedom fighter in the courtroom.”

“You can’t do this work without the passion for it,” he said. “If you’re not passionate, you’re in the wrong business.”

Another UI graduate is working on a case of national interest as well.

Bouma, a Pocahontus, Iowa, native, is defending Arizona’s controversial immigration law, which generally requires police forces in the state, after stopping people on other grounds, to question people’s immigration status if officers have “reasonable suspicion” they are illegal immigrants.

Seven lawsuits have been filed so far, according to the Associated Press, calling the law unconstitutional. The first case went in front of a federal judge, College of Law alumna Susan Bolton, on July 15. Two more, including one filed by the federal government, will get hearings Thursday.

The law is set to go into effect July 29.

Bouma told the DI his interest in law stems from growing up around lawyers, including many of his father’s friends.

“My dad always told me I argued so much I ought to get paid for it,” he said and laughed.

In addition to his law degree, he also completed his undergraduate studies at the UI in political science. Upon graduation, he said the U.S. Army took him to Arizona.

“I’m not surprised to see him in a high-profile case like this; he’s developed a very strong reputation for himself,” said Eric Andersen, an associate dean at the UI College of Law. “We are proud of our alumni who have accomplished outstanding things in their profession.”