UA Touts Only National Agri Law Grad Program

Where do recent law school grads turn if they want to specialize in agriculture law? If they’re serious, they come to the graduate program in agricultural law at the University of Arkansas because it’s the only one of its kind in the United Sates.

Susan Schneider, associate professor of law and director of the program, said between eight and 15 students are admitted to the specialty program each year.

The graduate program was founded in 1980 and is designed to “provide students with the ability to deal at the highest professional level with the legal issues facing American agriculture,” according to literature about the program.

It’s estimated that about 20 percent of the economic activity in the United States is tied to agriculture. And Schneider said the agriculture industry is filled with various complexities not seen in other industries, so there is a clear need for focused lawyers.

For admittance to the program, students must have earned a law degree from an accredited law school. Once they’re in, students must earn 24 credits, with one major research and writing requirement, and most complete the program in one year, Schneider said.

Schneider said many students come from out of state, so the law school would like to look at beefing up the program with a distance learning option. This year’s class includes students from California, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, as well as international candidates from India and Nigeria.

Tuition is $6,974 for Arkansas residents and $13,982 for non-residents, but Schneider said assistanceships are frequently used to help students get into the program. She said the biggest competitor with graduate law programs is the job market.

The University of Arkansas is also home of the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information, which was created in 1987. According to information published by the graduate program, the NCALRI is the only agricultural law research and information facility that is independent and connected to the national agricultural information network. It conducts objective legal research and provides non-partisan agricultural law information to the agricultural community.

Schneider said agriculture law is becoming a broader field, rather than narrowing, as some might think. A surge in interest in food safety, technology and how it affects the environment, have all lured many graduated law students to look at agriculture as a field of specialty.

There are four primary areas of study she’s seeing lawyers pursue within the program:

* Small town practices, those where a lawyer just wants to live and practice in rural areas where an agriculture background would be an advantage.

* Agri business, where lawyers usually work at large farming operations at the corporate level.

* Food law, which encompasses food safety, biotechnology and labeling issues.

* Agriculture and environmental issues, which prepares law grads to wade into such hot topics as phosphorus runoff and ammonia emissions.

Schneider said she has admitted about five students to the program for next year already and has a full slate of interested others in the pipeline.