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Winter
2001 Volume 3, Number 2
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 Law School offers programs on variety of legal issues 
More than 80 vocational agriculture teachers, Penn State Cooperative Extension
agents and representatives from state government attended a two-day workshop
on “Environmental Law and Regulation Applied to Agriculture.”
The Agricultural Law Research and Education Center of The Dickinson School
of Law of The Pennsylvania State University sponsored the workshop. The workshop is one of many outreach programs on legal issues the Law School offers to legal professionals, farmers, teachers and other groups. Two one-day workshops on “Internet Research for Legal Professionals,” presented by the Office of Continuing Education and Outreach, attracted more than 20 legal professionals, according to Nancy Jean LaMont, director of the office. Pilot programs in the Law School’s Let’s Talk Law series on “Estate Planning” and “Starting a Business” were offered at Penn State Abington in the fall. During the Law School’s alumni weekend, continuing legal education programs on “Mediation Advocacy,” “Pennsylvania Powers of Attorney,” “Finding Business Information on the Web” and “Multidisciplinary Practice” were enthusiastically supported by more than 30 alumni and friends, LaMont noted. Another program, “2000 Elder Law Planning Update,” was offered by the Law School at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Programs on other legal topics are in the planning stages, she said. Future programs will focus on land use and growth management, law office management, public interest advocacy, cyber law and dispute resolution. The “Environmental Law and Regulation Applied to Agriculture” workshop was targeted to vocational agriculture teachers. It was designed to help them teach young students about the issues affecting their profession. “By virtue of their contacts with current and future agricultural producers, helping these teachers to understand the issues will help them teach many students, who, in turn, will meet their regulatory requirements,” John Becker, professor of agricultural economics at Penn State and workshop instructor, said. “A similar multiplication of effort and potential impact happens with Cooperative Extension agents.” Christine Kellett, director of the Agricultural Law Research and Education Center, noted that the “Environmental Law” workshop focused on the topics of traditional solutions to environmental problems, right-to-farm laws, state and federal sources of regulatory authority, the Clean Water Act, the EPA/USDA unified strategy for dealing with concentrated animal feeding operations, regulation of activities taking place on wetlands areas, regulation of the sale and use of pesticides, and food safety and biotechnology. A grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was used to defray part of the cost for participants. The workshops on “Internet Research for Legal Professionals” were designed to educate both novice and experienced Internet users about legal resources available on the Internet, LaMont said. The first workshop focused on Internet basics. The second workshop dealt with finding primary and secondary legal sources on the Internet, evaluating Web information, advanced search strategies and using the fee-based legal resources Lexis and Westlaw. 
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Dr.
Courtney B. Burroughs U.Ed.OCE 01-8002/mkm/GSM