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Agricultural Law Center at Drake Law School is a Hub with Many Spokes
[by Erica Winter] Drake Law School, Des Moines, IA, is the only law school in the nation to offer a certicate in agricultural law and is one of the few with an Agricultural Law Center.

The center, open since 1983, was formed in an effort to give focus to the study of agricultural law, says its Director, Professor Neil Hamilton. There are courses on agricultural and food law for current J.D. students and also continuing education courses for lawyers in the region who work with clients in the agricultural eld. Also, the centers formation was a response to farmers concerns that lawyers simply did not understand the issues related to rural and agricultural life. By training new lawyers who understand agricultural law, Drake has certainly helped to change that situation here in Iowa and the Midwest, says Hamilton. The food and agricultural law specialization certicate program at Drake started four years ago. Six J.D. students will graduate with certicates this year, and eight students expect to do so next year. Agricultural law reaches into areas both expected and unexpected, including covering issues regarding the agricultural impact on a regions natural environment, land ownership questions, and estate planning. Then there are agricultural issues in international trade law, intellectual property issues, and health policy regulations. Drakes center casts the net wider to include food law, dealing with food labeling and safety, says Hamilton. The study of agricultural law not only looks at the laws impact on agriculture and food, says Hamilton, but it also acts as a window or portal into all legal issues. Still, Drakes

courses do not stay on the theoretical side, using agriculture only as an example of larger issues. Instead, the courses and agricultural center here take a farm-level approach with practical applications for legal study, says Hamilton. Students come to Drake specically for the agricultural law program, says Hamilton, with many coming from rural farming backgrounds and seeking a foundation in the agricultural legal eld. Graduates go on to careers in a diverse eld of practice, says Hamilton. Third-year Drake Law student Amber Brady grew up on a family farm in central Texas and earned a Masters degree in Animal Science, with an emphasis on food production, before coming to law school. Her interest in food production issues continued, including food safety regulation and litigation. She decided not to pursue the certicate program, Brady says, opting instead to join the moot court and mock trial teams. Still, Brady praises Drakes agricultural law program for the range and exibility of its curriculum. If a student wanted to return to a rural hometown and open a general practice, she says, there are classes in wills and trusts and business tax with an agricultural focus; or if the student were more interested in policy, he/she could opt for that side of agricultural law. You can make it your own, she says of Drakes program. Students can even opt to study agricultural law through the summer institute at Drake,

which includes courses on several agricultural topics, such as estate planning for farmers, the law of rural development, and taxation. The summer institute, which has been running for about 20 years, is a series of one-week, one-credit classes, with immersion in one topic from Monday through Thursday night and a nal exam on Friday. Students then move on to the next course the following week. In addition to its mission of education for law students and lawyers, the center supports writing and research through the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, created by students about 10 years ago, and also through faculty scholarship. Brady is the Editor of the journal this year. The center also focuses on public policy work as host to the nonpartisan State and Local Food Policy Councils. Drake Laws Agricultural Law Center faculty works on developing effective food and agriculture policy ideas and then provides the information to those shaping local food policies in their own states, towns, or tribes. The Agricultural Law Centers website acts as a clearinghouse for policy information developed there and for information and strategies developed by local food councils. It also advocates for formation of new food policy councils. For this project, Drake has teamed up with the USDA Risk Management Agency, the National Agricultural Law Center, various nonprot groups, and local government agencies.

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Drake Law alumni have gone on to practice in law rms that have agricultural companies or farmers for clients, says Hamilton. They have also gone to work in Washington, DC, for law and agricultural policymakers, have become in-house attorneys for the Farm Bureau Federation; or gone on to the University of Arkansas LL.M. program in Agricultural Law (which Hamilton helped to create before coming to Drake). Brady will be one of those taking a rm job after graduation. She will return to her native Texas and work in the litigation section of a law rm, dealing primarily with oil and gas issues. Eventually, she hopes to work in agricultural litigation, she says.

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