Food Law: A Practical Guide

Food law is a hot topic in today's legal practice. For one thing, food is a highly-regulated product with fragmented oversight on the federal and state levels. Producers and retailers face an array of compliance obligations, especially as they operate in an increasingly inter-connected, globalized world. Even while the number of law school courses on food law proliferates to meet growing student demand, there remains substantial disagreement over just what constitutes food law. Can students tell firms they want to go into "food law" as a defined field of practice? Even for practicing lawyers, wrapping their arms around the contours of this nebulous field can be difficult at first.

For readers new to the field of food law in its many forms, this Practical Guide aims to provide an overview of what lawyers actually do to assist food and beverage clients across various domains of legal practice. It is written by practicing lawyers for practicing lawyers, with a focus on information that is both practical and actionable.

Author: Tommy Tobin
Publisher: American Bar Association
Published: 05/02/2022
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.71lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781641059510

About the Author
Benjamin P. Abel, McGuireWoods Benjamin P. Abel is an Associate in McGuireWoods in its Charlottesville office. He is a seasoned litigator with extensive experience representing clients in both federal and state courtrooms. His practice focuses on representing clients in products liability and class actions, with a particular emphasis on food and beverage labeling claims. Ben earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from William & Mary. Email: BAbel@mcguirewoods.comCarrie Akinaka, Perkins Coie LLP Carrie Akinaka is an Associate in Perkins Coie's Los Angeles office. She is a trained persuasive writer and oral advocate--a strategic storyteller. Carrie has a varied commercial litigation practice, supporting a Fortune 5 retailer in employment and product liability actions, major real estate clients in multimillion-dollar mediations, and a multinational food company in class actions and appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Email: CAkinaka@perkinscoie.comRicardo Carvajal, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, PC Ricardo Carvajal is a Director at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, PC in Washington, DC. His practice focuses on food regulatory requirements enforced by the FDA, USDA, and FTC. Mr. Carvajal advises clients ranging from start-ups to multinational companies at all points in the supply chain, including bulk ingredient manufacturers, distributors of packaged goods, and retailers. He counsels clients on the regulatory status of ingredients and finished products, and provides advice on compliance with labeling and advertising requirements. He helps clients interpret and comment on the implementation of new legislation and regulations. He also has expertise in FDA's regulation of products derived through the use of emerging technologies. Email: RCarvajal@HPM.comDr. Darin Detwiler, Northeastern University Darin Detweiler, LP.D., M.A.Ed., is the Assistant Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs at Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies in Boston, MA. He is also an Assistant Teaching Professor of Food Policy who serves as the lead faculty for the college's MS in Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industry program. He is the recipient of the College of Professional Studies' 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Detwiler is an internationally recognized, respected, and well-connected food policy and technology expert with 25+ years' experience in shaping federal food policy, consulting with corporations, and contributing thought leadership to industry events and publications. He is a recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Service Award from the International Association for Food Protection. Detweiler is regarded as "one of America's leading food safety advocates." In 2004, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed Detwiler to two terms on the USDA's National Advisory Committee. He later advised the FDA as the Senior Policy Coordinator for a leading national food safety advocacy organization. Email: d.detwiler@northeastern.eduStewart Fried, OFW Law Stewart Fried is a Principal at OFW Law in Washington, DC. He has broad expertise in all SNAP and WIC-related matters and represents associations, supermarkets, convenience stores, and other SNAP-eligible retailers on a wide variety of issues before FNS, Congress, and in federal courts across the country, including providing statutory and regulatory advice to and representation of retailers on issues ranging from authorization to administrative and judicial review proceedings from denials and withdrawals of SNAP authorization, trafficking in SNAP benefits. Stewart also represents food manufacturers, co-packers, retailers, and associations on food labeling, employment, corporate governance, and antitrust issues. Email: sfried@ofwlaw.comAnne Glazer, Stoel Rives Anne Glazer is a Partner in Stoel Rives' Portland, Oregon office. Anne handles the broad range of product development, branding, marketing, sales, and distribution issues for food, beverage, and cosmetics clients. She regularly works with clients of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Anne works with clients to manage their legal costs through strategy development, prioritization, cooperation with in-house staff, creative fee arrangements, managing to budgets, and client staff training. Anne is a past co-chair of the firm's Agribusiness, Food and Beverage Industry Group. Email: Anne.Glazer@stoel.comJames F. Neale, McGuireWoods James F. Neale is a partner in McGuireWoods' Charlottesville office, whose varied practice focuses on high-exposure cases in courts across the country. He has substantial mass tort and class action litigation experience and currently serves as co-chair of the firm's Food & Beverage Industry Team. He holds a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia. Email: JNeale@mcguirewoods.comLarry Reichman, Perkins Coie LLP Larry Reichman, a Partner in Perkins Coie's Portland office, guides clients within such regulated industries as food and beverage, dietary supplements, telecommunications and energy in major initiatives and new market opportunities by resolving regulatory challenges, project impediments and related litigation. From guidance on label requirements for food and beverage products, including the unique mandates governing online sales and organic products, to advising on a major educational institution's creation of a statewide broadband network, Larry introduces business practicality into his regulatory compliance counsel to global manufacturers, corporations, public utilities, and entrepreneurs. Email: LReichman@perkinscoie.comMichael T. Roberts, UCLA School of Law Michael T. Roberts is the founding Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, where he is also a Professor from Practice. Roberts is a thought leader in a broad range of legal and policy issues from farm to fork in local, national, and global food supply systems. He taught the first food law and policy course in the United States in 2004 and served as the leading force in the development in 2005 of the first scholarly journal--Journal of Food Law and Policy--devoted exclusively to the field. Roberts has authored Food Law in the United States (Cambridge University Press 2016) and is actively involved in the global development of food law and policy. Email: MRoberts@law.ucla.eduRoger R. Szemraj, OFW Law Roger R. Szemraj is a Principal at OFW Law in Washington, DC. He advises associations and individual clients on agricultural appropriations; Farm Bills; food assistance programs; international food aid and development programs; food safety issues; trade issues; and research programs. He has more than 30 years of experience on Capitol Hill, concentrating on these matters, having served as chief of staff to three House members and associate staff to the House Appropriations Committee. Email: rszemraj@ofwlaw.comTommy Tobin, Perkins Coie LLP Thomas Tobin is an Associate in Perkins Coie's Seattle office. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false advertising claims and consumer protection claims for well-known international corporations. He regularly writes articles on food law and policy issues and is chair of the American Bar Association's Food, Cosmetics, and Nutraceuticals Committee. Email: TTobin@perkinscoie.comCharles Sipos, Perkins Coie LLP Charles Sipos is an experienced class action litigator, having successfully represented clients in class action lawsuits in the technology, food and beverage, gaming, and pharmaceutical industries over the past 16 years. He has appeared and argued on behalf of defendants in class actions in courts nationwide, including in California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Seventh Circuits. He has presented arguments resulting in dismissals and summary judgment based on federal preemption, lack of standing, mootness, primary jurisdiction, failure to allege damages, the "reasonable consumer" standard and related defenses. Email: CSipos@perkinscoie.comCharles F. Woodhouse, Woodhouse Shanahan PA Charles F. Woodhouse is a partner at the Washington, DC, and Florida offices of Woodhouse Shanahan PA. He is dedicated to the details of food labeling, food safety, and food science. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth, an M.B.A. from Wharton, a J.D. from Rutgers, and Master's degrees in Food Safety and Packaging from Michigan State University. He also is currently a graduate student in Soil and Water Science at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Email: cfw@regulatory-food-science.com