Career Spotlight: Agricultural Attorney
In nowadays ’ south global, there seems to be a lawyer for everything — kin, business, labor, finance and sol on. With that in take care, it should not be surprising that individuals can establish careers as agrarian attorneys .
Understanding the meaning
The opinion of fighting for the little farmer against a huge cooperation in court may sound appealing but there is more to the occupation than that, according to Joel McKie, a partner in Hall Booth Smith Attorneys at Law who specializes in department of agriculture cases .
Hall Booth Smith Attorneys at Law is comprised of 13 offices throughout the Southeast United States and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Joel works with 180 lawyers at the firm, but is one of about four that specializes in agriculture cases.
The condition agribusiness lawyer can take on different meanings depending on what quad you are in and where you are geographically located. Lawyers working in small towns will deal with a gamete of different cases, like dealing with a contract dispute of a especial agricultural commodity to working on a divorce case that involves grow assets. Those who work in mid to larger law firms, like Hall Booth Smith, may have the opportunity to specialize in more specific cases within the agrarian diligence .
“ I think of my function as being person that major in understanding the issues that are alone to agriculture and agribusiness, ” Joel said. “ That often implicates a variety show of different legal matter subject expertness. ”
Creating the opportunities
Joel typically works with companies that are known as boastfully agribusinesses, like institutional investors or big syndicate farm operations. A significant separate of his job duties include the transactional nature of acquisitions, but that does not stop him from creating other alone opportunities .
“ One of the areas that we ’ ve developed some expertness on is the perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, ” he said. “ It ’ s basically a codified that allows people that are supplying grow to have a higher precedence from a security point of view in receivable proceeds from the seller of that produce than traditional procure creditors. ”
The building complex federal statue was enacted in the 1920s and protects little farmers in Georgia and California and some of the agribusiness that might play in the produce space .
“ We ’ ve spent a fairly sum of time in federal court dealing with matters that implicate priority among impregnable creditors and those who have trust rights on the perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, ” Joel said .
The cases Joel likes the most are those where one of two things are occurring — he ’ sulfur in the weeds with a client trying to figure out a strategy for a deal or transaction or he ’ sulfur in the weeds with a customer, applying his legal cognition to help them figure out the risks that will lead to the right business decision in that jell .
“ Sometimes we get caught in the act but there are opportunities to very stand up for the little guy or to make a contribution, ” Joel said. “ There are a lot of cases where I don ’ thyroxine think farmer gets the right deal. I always feel full if I feel like I helped a farmer feed his family or put a little away in the depository financial institution to help him have a better year in the future. ”
Possessing the traits
If you are on the fence about whether a career as an department of agriculture lawyer is good for you, here are a few traits Joel believes person in his line of function should possess .
- strong work ethic — Growing up on a farm laid a solid foundation for Joel to work hard in everything he puts his mind to in his career. Having a strong cultivate ethic is needed to stick out the long hours an department of agriculture lawyer must work .
- attention to detail — many cases can change based on the smallest details. Paying attention to the details can be what helps you win a shell for a customer .
- Discipline — Discipline is the key to making it through law school and keeping up with your cases to ultimately make your clients happy .
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