Tenured University of Arkansas Faculty

Susan Schneider has practiced and taught agricultural law throughout her entire career as an attorney.  She joined the University of Arkansas School of Law faculty in 1998 and has served as the LL.M. Program director since 2000. Her primary teaching and research interests are in food law and policy, agricultural finance, bankruptcy, agricultural labor law, and agricultural policy.

Professor Schneider grew up on a family dairy farm in Minnesota and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science in 1982 from the College of St. Catherine (Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Gamma Mu) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Professor Schneider earned her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota School of Law in 1985 and her LL.M. in agricultural law in 1990 from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Professor Schneider's private practice experience includes agricultural law work with firms in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C. She served as a staff attorney at Farmer's Legal Action Group Inc. and at the National Center for Agricultural Law Research & Information. Prior to coming to Arkansas, she has taught agricultural law and related subjects at William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota and more recently has taught in the Drake University School of Law Summer Agricultural Law Institute.

Professor Schneider has published numerous articles on agricultural law subjects, including farm finance, agricultural bankruptcy, ground-water contamination, farm program payments, and women in agriculture. In addition to her traditional publications, she is a regular contributor to the aglaw blog on the Jurisdynamics Network and has created a blog for the LL.M. Program, aglawllm that highlights current developments.

Professor Schneider is an active member of the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) and is a past president and former AALA board member. She is a frequent speaker at agricultural law conferences.


Christopher Kelley has a distinguished career in agricultural law practice, teaching and scholarship. He currently teaches in the areas of governmental regulation, environmental law, and international issues in the LL.M. Program. In the J.D. program, Professor Kelley teaches Administrative Law and a Rule of Law seminar.  He received his B.A. from Louisiana State University, his J.D., with honors, from the Howard University School of Law, and his LL.M. in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law. He is admitted to the practice of law in Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, North Dakota, and the District of Colombia.

Before joining the University of Arkansas School of Law faculty in 1998, Professor Kelley practiced law in both the public and private sectors. His private agricultural law practice experience includes work with Arent Fox in Washington D.C., and Linquist & Vennum P.L.L.P. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began his legal career in the Solicitor General's Office of the Minnesota Attorney General. He also has been a public defender, a legal services attorney, and staff counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi.

Professor Kelley also has taught at the William Mitchell College of Law, the University of North Dakota School of Law, the University of South Dakota School of Law, and in the Drake University School of Law Summer Agricultural Law Institute.

In 2005, Professor Kelley taught as a Fulbright Scholar at the Kharkiv National Agrarian University and the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He continues to lecture in Ukraine and has traveled to Ukraine more than a dozen times since 2005.

Professor Kelley is assisting in the development of cooperative rule of law distance learning program between the School of Law and the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs. He also has arranged for interactive audiovisual conferences between the School of Law and law students in Kyiv who through the United States Embassy in Ukraine and is working on other distance education projects in Ukraine.

As Of Counsel to the Inyurpolis law firm in Kharkiv, Professor Kelley assists the firm with its international practice. He also teaches in the firm's "Summer School" for its new attorneys and for law students at the Kharkiv National Law Academy. In June 2008, he represented the firm at the 3rd Annual Commonwealth of Independent States Local Counsel Forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Professor Kelley is a Co-Chair of the Russia/Eurasia Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law. He participated in the World Justice Forum in Vienna, Austria, in July 2008. The World Justice Forum is part of the World Justice Project, which is international co-sponsored in part by the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association.

Distinguished Agricultural Law Visitors and Adjunct Faculty


Neil Hamilton is a well recognized leader in the study of agricultural law and its part in our food system, and he is a long time friend of the LL.M. Program. Professor Hamilton is the Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law at the Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa and also serves as the Director of the Drake Agricultural Law Center. He has taught agricultural law for over twenty-seven years and was instrumental in the founding of our LL.M. Program, serving as one of our first professors in 1981. He teaches our introductory course, Introduction to the Law of Food and Agriculture and a new course that explores new opportunities such as wind power, Rural Lands Rural Livelihoods.

Professor Hamilton has lectured throughout the United States and in 20 other countries, has written more than two dozen law review articles and several books on food and agricultural law issues. In addition to coming to Arkansas each semester, once a year he is a visiting professor at the University of Nantes in France.

Professor Hamilton is former president of the American Agricultural Law Association and former co-chair of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Small Farms Advisory Committee. He now chairs the advisory board for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and is the board chair of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. He has been a consultant for many international organizations, such as the United Nations Development Program in China, the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, the World Bank and the International Potato Research Center in Lima, Peru.

Dr. James Baarda has been a great asset to the LL.M. Program in recent years, teaching and assisting in the development of our courses.  He grew up on a small farm in Iowa. He attended Iowa State University (B.S., 1963, chemistry, physics, zoology), the University of Denver School of Law, Night Division (J.D., 1969), and the University of Florida (Ph.D., 1974, Food and Resource Economics). He is a member of the Colorado and Florida Bars (inactive), a recipient of the American Agricultural Law Association's Distinguished Service Award and USDA's Superior Service Award.

Dr. Baarda worked with USDA's Farmer Cooperative Service in Washington, D.C., for more than 16 years, then spent four years as Vice President of Education at the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. After domestic and international consulting in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union republics, he joined a law firm in Washington engaged in complex nationwide class action as well as other litigation.

In 2001, Dr. Baarda returned to USDA where he conducts research, writing, training, and speaking activities for Cooperative Services in the Rural Business-Cooperative Service agency. He has written and spoken extensively on topics related to cooperatives and other farmer and business associations and is widely recognized for his work, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Much of Dr. Baarda's current work focuses on the legal, economic, financial, and business characteristics of cooperatives that distinguish them from other forms of business in a dynamic, global economy.  He recently retired from his work at the USDA, but fortunately for us, he has agreed to continue teaching in the LL.M. Program.  He teaches Agricultural Economics for Lawyers and Agricultural Cooperatives.


Karen Krub has devoted her professional career to work with family farmers. She is a senior staff attorney for Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG), a nonprofit law center formed in 1986 to provide legal services to family farmers and their rural communities. She grew up in the Skagit Valley of northwestern Washington where her family fished for salmon in the coastal waters of Washington and Alaska. Professor Krub received her B.S. in Resource Development from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, in 1991, and her J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1996.

Professor Krub first came to FLAG in 1995 as a summer intern, primarily exploring production contract issues. She then received a Skadden Fellowship which allowed her to return as a staff attorney in September of 1996.  She quickly became a critical part of FLAG's work and was hired into a permanent staff attorney position.  Since joining FLAG, Professor Krub has worked primarily in the areas of administrative law, agricultural credit, disaster assistance, and farmer-owned agricultural business development.  She has delivered trainings for farmers, farm advocates, and attorneys through out the United States, has testified before Congress on family farm issues, and is well known and respected for her work.  Her many agricultural publications include the Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance.  Professor Krub teaches the Crop Insurance and Disaster Assistance course in the LL.M. Program each year.


Vincent O. Chadick received his B.A. degree from Georgetown University, his law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law, and his LL.M. degree in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law.  He is a partner in the Bassett Law Firm, practicing in the areas of agricultural law, environmental law, business and commercial law. He is a recognized leader in the Fayetteville community and is a member of the Washington County, Arkansas and Oklahoma Bar Associations.  Professor Chadick brings his rich agricultural law practice experience to the classroom in his course, The Regulation of Livestock Sales, a course focused on the Packers and Stockyards Act

David P. Grahn is the Associate General Counsel for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture where he is responsible for the legal advice provided by the Office of the General Counsel to the Rural Housing Service, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural Utilities Service, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation/Risk Management Agency, and the Farm Loan Programs of the Farm Service Agency.  From 1996 through 2002, Professor Grahn was the Assistant General Counsel for Legislation responsible for the drafting and reviewing of legislation and the reviewing of Congressional testimony that affected agencies of the Department of Agriculture.  He was detailed to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition during Congress' consideration of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.  From 1992 through 1995, he served as a Confidential Assistant to the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency.  Professor Grahn is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and Carleton College. 

For a number of years, we have relied on Professor Grahn's unparalleled expertise in federal farm policy as a friend and colleague.  We are now delighted to have him offer a new course on federal policy making and budgetary concerns.  The new course is described as, How OZ really works: The power of credit reform and paygo in driving Federal policy and determining who makes the decisions.

Mark Henry is a registered Patent Attorney with an active agricultural law, commercial law, and intellectual property practice in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He received his B.A. degree in Biology from Hendrix College, his law degree (with honors) from the University of Arkansas School of Law and his LL.M., in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law.  He is admitted to practice in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri; also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Federal Circuits, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma. He is a member of the Washington County, Arkansas (Chair, Intellectual Property Section, 2003-04), and American (Intellectual Property Section) Bar Associations. 

In addition to his agricultural intellectual property work, Professor Henry received recognition for his firm's representation of Hmong family farmers who had moved to the region to purchase poultry contracting farms and were facing foreclosure.  We are delighted to have Professor Henry teaching our Agricultural Biotechnology class for the first time Spring 2008 semester.

Alison Peck has been a practitioner and scholar of international law and sustainability for more than ten years.  She received an LL.M. in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas, focusing her research and writing in the area of international agricultural sustainability.  Recent publications include:

Alison Peck, The New Imperialism: Toward an Advocacy Strategy for GMO Accountability, 21 Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev. 37 (2008);

Alison Peck, Standing for Protection of Collective Rights in the European Communities, 32 Geo. Wash. J. Int'l L. & Econ. 367 (2000).

Before coming to Arkansas, Professor Peck practiced international arbitration with the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Washington, D.C., trying cases before various international arbitration bodies. She served as Notes Editor for the Yale Law Review and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995. Following law school, helped found the Global Constitutionalism Project at Yale, working with supreme court justices around the world to assemble a global exchange of judicial decision-making on global problems. She served as a law clerk for Judge Jon O. Newman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Judge G. Federico Mancini on the Court of Justice for the European Communities.

Professor Peck taught International Environmental Law at the University of Arkansas during the Fall 2008 term, receiving rave reviews from her students. We are delighted to have Professor Peck teaching our Sustainable Agriculture class for the first time this coming semester.