Clinic - Food and Farm Business Law LAW 993A/993B

Course Number: LAW 993A/993B, ULSR

Course Credits: 6 (4 clinical, 2 academic)

Students in the Food and Farm Business Law Clinic provide transactional legal services to small farms, food and beverage entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations. The Clinic’s legal services help clients expand access to local, healthy food in underserved communities, start or expand mission-driven business ventures, steward the preservation and transitioning of farmland for future generations of farmers, and implement innovative and sustainable production, processing, and distribution practices. Areas of legal services include new business formation and legal structure; tax exemption for nonprofit organizations; review, drafting, and negotiation of contracts, including leases, financing agreements, and other documents; regulatory advice, including relating to food safety, labeling and marketing, and land use; and trademarks. Through their client work, students develop fundamental transactional legal skills including contract drafting, entity and deal structuring, negotiation, legal research and analysis, creative problem solving, and counseling.

The weekly seminar component of the Clinic teaches the substantive law and legal practice skills that will be most useful to students during the semester. In addition, the seminar provides an opportunity to discuss the role of law and lawyers in food systems and the practical, ethical, and policy-based issues that arise in the context of lawyering on behalf of mission-oriented individuals and organizations.

Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required. Prerequisites: Professional Responsibility plus one regulatory course (Environmental Skills, Environmental Survey, Administrative Law, or Food Law) and one transactional course (Corporations, Drafting Legal Documents, Business Planning, Environmental Law in Commercial Transactions, or Real Estate Transactions). The regulatory or transactional course requirement may be waived or taken concurrently in exceptional circumstances. The clinic is open to students in their second, third, or fourth year of law school.