Agribusiness  

Helping Agribusinesses Stay Protected and Profitable

Persistent and emerging challenges to the agriculture industry are increasing risk and lowering profit margins with increasingly complicated litigation, corporate, regulatory, and environmental challenges having long-range impacts on productivity and profitability. Bailey Glasser lawyers have deep experience helping agribusiness companies navigate these challenges and when disputes arise, we’re ready to fight.

We handle high-stakes disputes on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants — in state and federal courts, before arbitrators and mediators, and across the country. Whether an agribusiness faces a breach of contract claim, a fractured business relationship, fraud, tortious interference, or a bet-the-company lawsuit, our trial lawyers are prepared to take matters all the way through verdict. Opposing counsel have included some of the largest commercial law firms in the United States, and we've emerged victorious.

Our attorneys regularly represent clients across agribusiness, chemical supply, and related industries in high-stakes contract disputes, crop loss claims, chemical liability matters, and premises liability actions. We defend agricultural chemical retailers, suppliers, applicators, and manufacturers against negligence and products liability claims, including crop damage and spray drift cases. We also handle business and employment disputes, including non-compete and non-solicitation matters. 

Our team is led by litigators in our Boise, Idaho office with decades of agriculture experience, backed by the full resources of a nationally recognized commercial litigation and corporate firm. Our team lead, partner Benjamin Schwartzman, is Chambers-ranked for his litigation work, alongside other nationally ranked litigators and corporate lawyers with deep experience across related sectors, including energy, renewables, mergers & acquisitions, bankruptcy, and more. 

Our agribusiness lawyers draw on the full depth of the firm's capabilities to serve clients across every stage of their business and every type of dispute. We represent a wide range of agriculture clients, from multinational institutional agribusinesses to small family operations, and everything in between.

Our work includes: 

• Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution — Breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, fraudulent transfer, and tortious interference claims handled in state and federal courts and before arbitrators and mediators nationwide.
• Environmental Litigation — Defense of regulatory enforcement actions, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act matters, nuisance claims, and environmental permitting disputes that affect farming and processing operations.
• Banking & Financial Services — we handle all legal issues in banking including lending, collecting, debt restructuring, bank mergers and acquisitions, and regulatory demands. This includes our extensive experience structuring and resolving deals between lenders and farming entity borrowers. 
• Corporate & Transactional — Contracts, financings, joint ventures, and entity formation for agribusiness companies at every scale.
• Mergers & Acquisitions — our M&A lawyers have extensive experience representing all categories of participants in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) transactions, including buyers, sellers, special committees, major stockholders, management/founders, individual investors, lenders, and investment bankers.
• Bankruptcy & Business Restructuring — we represent the complete range of parties in complex business restructurings, reorganizations, and corporate bankruptcies. Whether working for debtors, banks and other secured creditors, creditors’ committees and unsecured creditors, lessors, equity holders, regulatory agencies, or buyers, we offer superior strategic and pragmatic advice in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, workouts, and liquidations.
• General Counsel Services — fractional General Counsel services for companies needing legal guidance but without a full-time GC hire.
• Energy Litigation & Corporate Representation —  for over 25 years, Bailey Glasser has been a trusted partner for energy companies navigating the legal complexities of the modern energy landscape
• Real Estate & Land Use — Farmland acquisitions and dispositions, lease negotiations, water rights, easements, and land use disputes, as well as comprehensive legal services related to the acquisition, sale, financing, development, and leasing of real estate. Our services include: the representation of sellers and buyers in the purchase and sale of commercial, office, industrial, mixed-use and residential real estate; the representation of developers in land use and governmental permitting issues.
• Intellectual Property — Protection and enforcement of patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, including seed technology, proprietary crop traits, and ag-tech innovations.
• Tax Planning & Disputes — Strategic tax planning for complex agricultural operations alongside representation in tax controversies and disputes with federal and state authorities.
• Employee Matters —  we handle the full range of employee-related issues, which can include workplace injuries, hiring and firing matters, even subcontractor disputes. We know the unique landscape of the agriculture industry and its personnel. 
• Appellate & Supreme Court Practice — When cases go up on appeal, our appellate lawyers have the experience to protect trial court wins and reverse unfavorable decisions at courts across the country, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. We also seamlessly parachute into appeals (or trials) to assist in ongoing litigation and to protect the record for appeals. 
• Electronically Stored Information & Technology — our nationally-recognized ESI team handles information management, data collection, and document production with speed and precision, keeping clients litigation-ready from day one no matter the case size.

We also recognize that not every dispute needs to go to trial. Our demonstrated willingness to try cases gives clients leverage throughout the litigation process — but we're equally skilled at negotiating favorable resolutions efficiently and privately when that serves our clients' goals better.

From hard-fought courtroom battles to financings, acquisitions, and everything in between, Bailey Glasser helps agribusiness clients navigate the full complexity of modern agricultural production.

   

Related Practices

Key Contacts

Our Team

Experience

• Obtained mid-eight figure settlement on behalf of agribusiness in contract dispute. Settlement represented approximately 90 percent of prelitigation demand.
• Obtained a settlement in crop loss case on behalf of agricultural chemical retailer and sales personnel. Grower claimed loss to corn crop in the mid-six figures. Settlement resulted in five-figure payment by grower to retailer.
• Obtained a second settlement in a different crop loss case involving rice on behalf of agricultural chemical retailer and sales personnel. Grower also claimed crop loss in the mid-six figures. Settlement resulted in five-figure payment by grower to retailer.
• Obtained voluntary dismissal of claims brought by soybean grower against agricultural chemical retailer. Grower claimed mid-six figures in damages and received nothing.
• Obtained settlement for less than 20 percent of demand on behalf of agricultural chemical supplier, chemical applicator, and pesticide control advisor, who were sued by grower of snap peas for a mid-six figure sum. Grower brought claims for negligence and products liability. 
• Obtained settlement for less than 10 percent of demand on behalf of agricultural chemical supplier sued by grower of corn for a mid-six figure sum. 
• Defended owner of industrial facility in premises liability/workplace injury action brought by injured subcontractor. Obtained settlement for less than 40 percent of demand.
• Defended agricultural chemical applicator in suit alleging permanent injury resulting from spray drift. Obtained settlement for less than 10 percent of demand.
• Defended chemical manufacture and research and development company in suit alleging various claims related to defective product. Obtained settlement for approximately 5 percent of demand.
• Obtained a zero-dollar settlement on behalf of a healthcare worker in a dispute with a former employer who claimed six figures in damages. Employer alleged breach of non-compete and non-solicitation provisions within an employment contract. Settlement included nullification of the non-compete and non-solicitation provisions. 

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