Legal Services and Advocacy

Our Mission

The Pace Food Law Center supports the transition to a just and sustainable food system. We address the unmet legal needs of farmers, food and beverage entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations to strengthen food sovereignty in disadvantaged communities, foster the growth of alternative models of food production and distribution, and promote the emergence of a more sustainable climate-friendly food system. The Pace Food Law Center offers direct legal services through its Food and Farm Business Law Clinic at the Haub School of Law, helping our clients navigate a complicated legal landscape governing all aspects of their work -- from land management to legal entity structuring to accessing markets. The Center also hosts trainings on key food law issues for lawyers and food and farm businesses and educates the next generation of food system lawyers. And, drawing on this work, we advance policies that aim to remove systemic barriers to success and help bring about a just and sustainable food system.

Strengthening Food Sovereignty

Food is a central component of physical and economic health, but many communities, particularly communities of color, are shut out from ownership of farms and food businesses and from access to affordable healthy foods. The Pace Food Law Center works in support of businesses and nonprofit organizations seeking to mitigate the effects of centuries of discrimination through expanding opportunities for people of color-owned farm and food businesses.

Fostering Alternative Models of Food Production and Distribution

Over the last century, economic and political power in the food system has become increasingly concentrated. This concentration reduces diversity of ownership and of scale in food production. By supporting the creation of alternative economic and other models for ownership of food production, processing, distribution, and retail businesses, Pace Food Law Center supports the redistribution of food system resources. We see this work as a critical tool for economic development and empowerment in both rural and urban communities.

Promoting the Emergence of a Sustainable, Climate-Friendly Food System

The food system in the United States is responsible for over 20% of the US’s greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, food production and supply chains are extremely susceptible to climate disruptions. The Pace Food Law Center supports transitions to climate-friendly food production and distribution.

Legal Work

In service of our mission, the Pace Food Law Center works to provide direct transactional legal services to food revolutionaries, build the capacity of the legal community to work on food system issues, and advance transformative, systemic policy change.

Food and Farm Business Law Clinic

The Food and Farm Business Law Clinic (formerly the Food and Beverage Law Clinic) provides pro bono transactional legal services to small farm businesses, artisan food manufacturers, craft beverage entrepreneurs, and related nonprofit organizations. Under faculty supervision, law students in the Clinic represent clients in connection with forming and structuring businesses, cooperatives, and nonprofits; drafting and negotiating legal agreements, including leases, operating agreements, and other commercial contracts; advising on regulatory matters, including related to food regulation and land use regulation; and seeking trademark protection, among other areas of practice. By providing pro bono legal representation to its clients, the Clinic seeks to facilitate the development of a more just and sustainable regional food system and economy. At the same time, by teaching fundamental lawyering skills and professionalism through hands-on legal work and client interaction, the Clinic seeks to transform law students into practice-ready professionals.

The Clinic was launched in 2017 with the generous support of the Sands Family Foundation and Constellation Brands. The Clinic is the first in the country entirely dedicated to providing direct, transactional legal services to food, beverage, and agricultural clients. The Clinic is a part of John Jay Legal Services, Inc., a non-profit legal services organization housed at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

Legal Community Capacity Building

The Pace Food Law Center conducts legal training programs on key issues affecting the food, beverage, and agriculture sectors. These programs provide farmers and food and beverage business owners with the tools they need to manage legal issues on their own and to know when to seek attorney assistance, and they train attorneys who can incorporate these areas into their practices. We also train the next generation of food systems law attorneys through student participation in the clinic and by offering other substantive food law courses to Pace Law students. Previously, the Center offered a term-time for-credit externship placement with the NRDC’s New York team. Students in this placement worked with staff attorneys on legal research in support of current and developing food policy campaigns, with projects including research on soil health initiatives and farm-to-school procurement, among others.

Policy Change

Understanding that food system reform requires both on-the-ground innovation and systemic policy change, the Pace Food Law Center collaborates with a variety of partners to bring lessons and priorities from Clinic clients and other partners to campaigns for transformative policy change at the city, state and federal level. Partners include the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Farm Bill Law Enterprise. Most recently, several Pace Food Law Center Faculty, including Jonathan Brown, Josh Galperin, and Margot Pollans, contributed to the Farm Bill Law Enterprise’s 2023 Farm Bill Reports. Numerous Pace Law students also worked on this project.