A $400,000 gift from alumnus Rob Sands, and from Constellation Brands, where he is CEO and President will sponsor a two-year pilot of a new Food and Beverage Law Clinic that will provide transactional legal services to farmers, community and grassroots groups, and mission-oriented food and beverage entrepreneurs.
The Clinic is part of a broader collaboration between the Pace Law and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to expand the capacity of the legal community to provide direct services to individuals and organizations seeking to build a more sustainable and healthy regional food system. In order to implement innovative practices, farmers, food entrepreneurs, micro brewers and distillers, and other activists must navigate a complicated legal landscape governing everything from labeling to estate planning.
“Many businesses in the growing ‘farm to table’ economy start out in someone’s kitchen, backyard or even roof garden,” said David Yassky, Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. “When these business grow, new legal issues emerge and often these entrepreneurs can’t afford the legal help they need. Our clinic will fill that gap. We are enormously grateful to our alumnus, Rob Sands, for his support and vision for this project.”