Doug O'Brien, who has served the National Agricultural Law for three years as Senior Staff Attorney and more recently as Interim Co-Director with Harrison Pittman, will end his tenure effective February 28 to join the administration of Governor Chet Culver of Iowa to lead a project to create an office of renewable energy.
"The Center and Graduate Program have been a major part of my professional life ever since I determined to go to the Program in 1995," said O'Brien. "I have had the good fortune to be a student, graduate assistant, professor, staff attorney, and co-director – and in every one of those capacities I have learned much."
Doug's position has been a unique one, as he served as senior staff attorney on a split appointment with the Drake University Agricultural Law Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Two-thirds of his time was devoted to research, writing and teaching at the University of Arkansas School of Law and the National Center, and the remaining one-third of his time was spent on projects and teaching at Drake. Doug's position with the two Centers elevated the expertise of both Centers by focusing on projects that bridged local, state, and national policy.
O'Brien's contributions to the National Center, the Law School, the Graduate Program, and the Drake Center have been substantial and varied. He was instrumental in negotiating the publication of agriculture-related Congressional Research Service reports on the Center website and in elevating the Center's presence nationally and particularly to Congressional policy makers. His publications include A FARMER'S LEGAL GUIDE TO PRODUCER MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS, a book he co-authored with Prof. Neil Hamilton of the Drake Center, Developments in Horizontal Consolidation and Vertical Integration, Legal and Policy Considerations of Investor-Friendly Cooperatives, World Trade Organization and the Commodity Title of the Next Farm Bill: A Practitioner's View, Biofuels: Policy and Business Organization Issues, and Animal Identification and the Next Farm Bill. His indepth Summary and Evolution of U.S. Farm Bills from 1985-2002 series focusing on the Commodity and Conservation Titles provides a valuable research tool for anyone involved with the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill.
In addition, O'Brien taught graduate-level courses each semester at the Graduate Program in Agricultural Law of the University of Arkansas and at the Drake University Agricultural Law Center. Those courses include Legislative Process (Drake), Farm Programs and Producer Support (Graduate Program), International Trade (Drake), Federal Regulation of Agricultural Sales (Graduate Program), Farm Bill 2007 (Drake), Commodity Title - The New Farm Bill (Graduate Program), Food and the Law (Drake), Food Legislation (Drake), Livestock Sales and Marketing (Graduate Program).
O'Brien's many outreach presentations include "Rural Development Title of the Next Farm Bill" (Iowa State Public Policy Group), "Competition and Trade Practice - Legislation and Litigation" (FLAG Conference), "Animal ID Issues in the Next Farm Bill" (AALA Convention), "Bioenergy: Opportunities for Cooperatives" (Farmers' Cooperatives Conference), "The New Farm Bill" (Centers for Disease Control and Management), "Investment Cooperatives" (Texas Cooperative Manager's Conference), and "The Use of Nonprofit Corporations in the State and Local Food Policy Context" (State and Local Food Policy Project Conference).
"Doug has been a critical component of the many successes and accomplishments the Center has enjoyed," said Harrison Pittman, with whom O'Brien served as Co-Director of the Center. "The Center is a better place today and has a brighter future ahead of it because of Doug's involvement over the years. We wish him the very best."