Burnout has reached critical levels in the legal profession—nearly 80% of legal professionals report experiencing burnout, and 40% have considered leaving the profession entirely due to stress. This presentation examines the occupational phenomenon of burnout, distinguishing it from everyday stress. Attendees will learn to recognize burnout warning signs in themselves and colleagues, understand the key differences between stress and burnout, and discover practical strategies for response and recovery.

Please note the following:

1. This webinar is offered to current AALA members only as a part of the member benefits.

2. This program is being offered for CLE credit in each state and reporting will not occur until after the program.

3. Pre-registration and active participation during the program are required in order to receive credit.

4. AALA is seeking CLE approval from the most stringent states before the program and approval for all other states will be sought afterwards. AALA will do its best to seek CLE credit for all members who attend, but it is possible that some states may not approve the webinar.

5. CLE credit will not be offered to those who only watch the recorded version provided after the webinar on the member portal.

This webinar will be offered to AALA members only for continuing legal education credit. If you are not currently an AALA member but want access to this webinar, you can become a member here.

Members:

Click here to be taken to your AALA member portal home page to register!

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted significant tax provisions that impact farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners. In this one-hour webinar, agricultural tax expert Kristine Tidgren, Director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, will break down the key tax changes introduced by the OBBBA legislation, explaining how these provisions may affect your operation as you close out 2025 and prepare for the 2026 tax year. With practical examples and actionable planning tips, Kristine will help producers understand the implications of the new rules and how to make informed decisions that support long-term financial stability.

In this webinar, legal experts unpack the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Trump v. CASA, which limited the authority of federal courts to issue universal injunctions. The panel will explore the ruling’s implications for judicial power and future of legal challenges to statutes, regulations, and other unlawful actions.

Video replay of this webinar is available to members in the Webinar Archives of the Resources section of the AALA website.

Click HERE for access.

Replay not eligible for CLE credit.

This webinar explores the complex legal and interpersonal challenges involved in heirs’ property cases, with a focus on quiet title actions. Attendees will gain insight into navigating the tangled webs of ownership, family dynamics, and genealogy. The session will also offer practical strategies for managing client expectations, improving communication with multiple heirs, and addressing the emotional and logistical hurdles that often arise in these sensitive cases. Ideal for attorneys, legal aid professionals, and advocates working in property and estate law.

Video replay of this webinar is available to members in the Webinar Archives of the Resources section of the AALA website.

Click HERE for access.

Food industry policy and legal experts provide insights into the Making America Healthy Again agenda, including an update on the MAHA Commission, reforms to the GRAS regulations, banning of food dyes, and more. Our speakers come with a wealth of policy and legal experience, representing some of the most major food manufacturing brands in the country.

Video replay of this webinar is available to members in the Webinar Archives of the Resources section of the AALA website.

Click HERE for access.

Current employer:
Farmers Business Network

Education and work experience:
Bachelor’s degree in agricultural and biological engineering from the University of Florida, an MBA and a JD from the University of Houston. Previously at Mills Shirley in Galveston, Texas, doing both transactional and litigation work.

AALA leadership roles:
Symposium planning committee

How did you get interested or involved in agricultural law?
I grew up on a beef and poultry farm and had a menagerie of farm animals. I currently manage cattle across 200 acres in northern Florida.

What is your current role and what type of work are you doing?
I support the input sales and marketing groups at FBN, spanning issues from regulatory, transportation, intellectual property, etc. As in-house counsel, I manage litigation, provide advice across a wide range of subjects, and review and draft a wide range of materials, whether it be marketing materials prepared for external sharing or traditional legal materials.

What are some challenges and opportunities you see in your job and the ag law profession?
Agriculture is an ever-evolving industry, as it must be to keep up with the needs of the populace, changing weather patterns and consumer sentiment, and rising input and land costs. As lawyers, we must also keep up with the changes in the industry. With a reduction in the number of farmers and people in general who are knowledgeable about agricultural issues, this becomes even more complicated and important. We not only need to know the law, but we also need to know agriculture so we can educate those we interact with about the industry’s current state and rising issues.

How does AALA help or benefit your profession or current role?
AALA is a great resource to get applicable updates on changes in ag law. It’s also the best place to connect with other ag-focused attorneys.

What is one of your favorite AALA memories or experiences?
The symposium always creates great memories. I come back every year with a list of new things to check into or research.

2026 AALA Annual Educational Symposium

? SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL HERE

RFP Process, Information, & How to Submit

The American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) invites proposals for educational sessions for the 2026 Annual Educational Symposium. The Symposium delivers high-quality Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and serves as a national forum for discussion of laws and public policies affecting agriculture. Proposals should clearly demonstrate how the presentation will provide substantive, practical, and non-promotional educational content consistent with the high standards of the Symposium.

Symposium Overview
Dates: November 5–7, 2026
Location: Fairmont, Dallas, Texas
Format: In-person only (virtual presentations will not be considered)

Submission Deadline & Notification
Proposal Deadline: March 1, 2026
Notification of Decisions: By June 1, 2026

About AALA
The American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) is a professional organization for legal and other professionals who focus on agricultural law and the legal needs of the agricultural and rural community. Founded in 1980, it serves as an independent, nonpartisan forum that provides education, information, networking, and resources on legal issues affecting farmers, agribusinesses, policymakers, and others connected to agriculture and rural areas.

Topics of Interest

The Planning Committee welcomes proposals addressing timely legal issues affecting agriculture nationwide. For 2026, proposals addressing issues of regional significance to the Southwest are especially encouraged, including:

• Water rights and groundwater regulation
• Agricultural labor and immigration policy
• Environmental and climate-related regulations
• Transportation, trade, and cross-border compliance
• Land use, zoning, and farmland preservation
• Food safety, FSMA compliance, and traceability
• Native American law and its impact on agriculture and natural resources
• Drought, disaster relief, and agricultural risk management
• Proposals addressing other emerging or “hot” legal issues relevant to agricultural stakeholders are also encouraged.

Program Tracks
Policy
Private Practice
Food Law
In-House / Corporate Counsel
Ethics (Ethics CLE sessions included)

Session Format & CLE Requirements
Session Length: 60-minute concurrent sessions
Format Preference: Multi-speaker panels; three presenters preferred
CLE: Sessions must be designed to qualify for CLE credit in most states
Materials: Speakers must prepare slides and written materials suitable for CLE accreditation and attendee use

Panel Composition & Diversity

The Planning Committee seeks diverse perspectives and encourages proposals that include:

• Presenters from multiple organizations or employers
• Multiple viewpoints on the topic
• National or cross-regional perspectives
• Presenters from under-represented or diverse backgrounds
• Panels composed entirely of speakers from a single firm or organization will generally receive lower priority.
• Panels should include at least one attorney speaker.

Selection Process

• Proposals are reviewed by a Planning Committee of more than 30 AALA members.
• Sessions are selected based on educational value, relevance, and balance within the overall program.
• Approximately 15% of session slots are reserved for direct committee placement outside the RFP process.
• Session slots are not available for sponsorship.
• The committee may invite presenters with similar proposals to collaborate on a combined session.

Multiple Submissions
Applicants may submit multiple proposals and should indicate a priority order if doing so. To ensure a balanced program, the committee may limit the number of sessions assigned to any individual presenter.

Speaker Expenses
Selected speakers receive a discounted symposium registration rate. Speakers are responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses.

For questions or additional information, please email us at info@aglaw-assn.org

? SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL HERE

Current employer:
National Pork Board

Education and work experience:
I am a University of Nebraska College of Law grad – class of 2000! I spent a year in private practice in Wichita, Kansas, then joined the law department at Excel Corporation (now Cargill Meat), working with the pork business and many other functions. I have not left the pork industry since but did leave the “practice” of law for many years with roles in hog procurement for Cargill then JBS. I also spent some time as the director of animal welfare for JBS Live Pork. I started with the NPB in the summer of 2017 as a director of packer relations and eventually led domestic marketing before moving “home” to operations, leading both legal and compliance. After a brief sabbatical as the VP of ops at a company that performed on-farm data collection and quantification and provided consulting services for environmental, social, and governance reporting, I came back to NPB, where I now, once again, lead legal and compliance as the director of operations.

AALA leadership roles:
I have enjoyed helping to develop and moderate a few sessions at the symposium and serving this year on the sponsorship committee. I look forward to working on the membership—marketing and symposium planning committees in 2025.

How did you get interested or involved in agricultural law?
I grew up in a farm family in north central Iowa. Both of my grandfathers and my dad were row crop farmers. We also had a few show cattle, and I participated in 4-H and FFA. I originally planned to be a veterinarian, but after much contemplation and an ag law class in my senior year at Oklahoma State University, I decided to apply to law school and never looked back. And while I left the actual practice of law for many years, I was never too far away, as I worked on large procurement contracts and navigated very complex regulatory requirements in the pork industry – both packing and live production.

What is your current role and what type of work are you doing?
As director of operations at NPB, I manage all legal and compliance matters. This includes everything from drafting and negotiating more than 100 contracts a year to managing our portfolio of trademarks and other intellectual property to answer all the random questions that seem to arise on a daily basis. I am also responsible for our relationship with the USDA, which is an important function in a federally administered checkoff program. The USDA/AMS specialist assigned to us must ensure that we are investing the dollars we receive from producer assessments in accordance with the Pork Act, the Pork Order, and the AMS Guidelines for Oversight of Commodity Research and Promotion Programs. This means that nearly every contract and PO that we enter into and every piece of communication that we publish is reviewed, first by me then by our AMS specialist, who must provide approval.

What are some challenges and opportunities you see in your job and the ag law profession?
The pork industry has had a very tough few years of financials, and that has put a lot of strain on our farmers. We are working diligently to try to help grow domestic and international demand for our products with the younger generations. We face headwinds of special interest groups who would like for consumers to stop eating meat, an increasingly complex array of state regulations on production, and trade barriers that aren’t always based on science. While this sounds like a lot of negative, it is not – it creates the opportunity to work in a fast-paced global industry and work toward solutions, which I absolutely love. And that is my sales pitch for students who are at all interested in the law – there is no other industry that is as important to the world as agriculture. We need smart, thoughtful, well-rounded lawyers to help us navigate a myriad of difficult decisions every day.

How does AALA help or benefit your profession or current role?
I love the network I have formed as a member of AALA. There is nothing like being around passionate people who are working on the same issues as you – even if they are coming from a different viewpoint. Also, because I don’t work in a law firm, I am not surrounded by lawyers every day, so it is really fun to get to talk shop and swap stories at the symposium each year.

What is one of your favorite AALA memories or experiences?
I brought my daughter, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Iowa, to the 2024 symposium with me. She walked away with a newfound love for ag law and several new contacts who have offered to help her maneuver through an upcoming transfer to Oklahoma State. I cannot think of any other professional conference I could have taken her to where she would be embraced and included as “one of the family” with such ease. My love for this organization and the symposium grew exponentially as a result, and it is all about the people involved.