Education
- B.S., Forestry and Economics, Iowa State University, 1976.
- J.D., University of Iowa, Order of the Coif, 1979.
Neil D. Hamilton "Big Deal Neil" is an American lawyer and agricultural economics writer. Hamilton currently holds the Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law at Drake Law School in Des Moines, Iowa, where he is also an emeritus professor of law and former director of the Agricultural Law Center. [1] He is a former chairman of the Agriculture Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He was also mentioned as a possible Secretary of Agriculture in the Obama Administration. [2]
Before coming to Drake Law School in 1983, he taught at the University of Arkansas. He was an Assistant Attorney General in the office of the Iowa Attorney General from 1979 to 1981.
Hamilton is a past president of the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA). He has authored books and articles on agricultural and environmental law. Hamilton wrote "The Food Chain", a column in the Des Moines Register .
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in Iowa, United States. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857. It is located on, and named after, the Des Moines River, which likely was adapted from the early French name, Rivière des Moines, meaning "River of the Monks". The city's population was 214,133 as of the 2020 census. The six-county metropolitan area is ranked 83rd in terms of population in the United States, with 699,292 residents according to the 2019 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, and is the largest metropolitan area fully located within the state.
Thomas James Vilsack is an American politician serving as the 32nd United States secretary of agriculture in the Biden administration. He previously served in the role from 2009 to 2017 during the Obama administration. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 40th governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007.
Terry Edward Branstad is an American politician and former diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979 before serving as governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He is the longest serving governor in United States history. Branstad served as the United States Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2020 under President Donald Trump.
Neal Edward Smith was an American politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for the Democratic Party from Iowa from 1959 until 1995, the longest-serving Iowan in the United States House of Representatives.
Henry Cantwell Wallace was an American farmer, journalist, and political activist who served as the secretary of agriculture from 1921 to 1924 under Republican presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He was the father of Henry A. Wallace, who would follow in his father's footsteps as secretary of agriculture and later became vice president under president Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was an editor of Wallaces' Farmer from 1916 to 1921.
Drake University Law School is the law school of Drake University, located in Des Moines, Iowa. Over 330 full-time students attend the institution. Dean Jerry Anderson is in charge of the University. Founded in 1865, Drake Law School is one of the 25 oldest law schools in the country.
Chester John Culver is an American politician who served one term as the 41st governor of Iowa, from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he had previously served as the 29th secretary of state of Iowa from 1999 to 2007. He was elected governor in the 2006 Iowa gubernatorial election and ran unsuccessfully for reelection in 2010, losing to former Governor Terry Branstad.
Mark A. Kuhn is an American grain farmer and politician. He was the Iowa State Representative for the 14th District and served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1999 through 2011.
Agricultural law, sometimes referred to as Ag Law, deals with such legal issues as agricultural infrastructure, seed, water, fertilizer, pesticide use, agricultural finance, agricultural labour, agricultural marketing, agricultural insurance, farming rights, land tenure and tenancy system and law on Agricultural processing and rural industry. With implementation of modern technologies, issues including credit, intellectual property, trade and commerce related to agricultural products are dealt within the sphere of this law.
Linda Rae Reade is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.
Michael John Streit is former justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Kimberly Kay Reynolds is an American politician serving as the 43rd governor of Iowa since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Reynolds served as the 46th lieutenant governor of Iowa from 2011 to 2017.
Iowa is a state in the upper Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the east and southeast, Missouri to the south, Nebraska to the west, South Dakota to the northwest, and Minnesota to the north.
Brent R. Appel is an American attorney, politician and former judge who served as a justice of the Iowa Supreme Court from 2006 to 2022. Appel was previously an attorney in the office of the Attorney General of Iowa and was a candidate for a seat in the Iowa General Assembly.
Megan Jones is an American politician from Iowa. Jones is a Republican member of Iowa House of Representatives from District 6 and has been a Representative since 2013.
Mark Steven Cady was an American jurist. He served on the Iowa Supreme Court for 21 years from 1998 to 2019. From 2011 to 2019, he was the chief justice of the court. He was the author of the court's opinion in Varnum v. Brien, which legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa.
Brian Meyer is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Iowa. A member of the Democratic Party, Meyer serves in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing the 29th district. He previously served on the Des Moines, Iowa City Council.
Nate Boulton is an American politician serving in the Iowa Senate since 2017. Boulton, a Democrat, represents the 20th District. Boulton was first elected in 2016 to replace retiring Democratic Senator Dick Dearden.
Earl M. Willits was an American politician who served in the Iowa House of Representatives from the 57th district from 1971 to 1973 and in the Iowa Senate from the 31st district from 1973 to 1979.
Zachary Martin Nunn is an American politician and former member of the Iowa Air National Guard who has served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 3rd congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was a member of the Iowa Senate for the 15th district from 2019 to 2023 and the Iowa House of Representatives for the 30th district from 2015 to 2019.