You will hear:
Grant Ballard, Partner, Ark Ag Law, PLLC
Grant Ballard is a partner with the firm of Ark Ag Law, PLLC, which maintains a nationwide practice focused on the representation of agricultural producers and other rural businesses. Ballard focuses his practice on the representation of farmers and ranchers in areas including Federal Farm Programs, Crop Insurance litigation, contract law, environmental law, and governmental compliance investigations. Ballard has extensive experience in crop insurance and farm program payment litigation where he has represented producers in litigation before private arbitrators, State and Federal Courts, and the USDA National Appeals Division. He has also regularly defended individuals charged with violating federal program requirements and Federal Criminal Laws.
Ballard practices across the Nation and is currently admitted to practice before multiple Federal District Courts, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Ballard regularly speaks to agricultural groups across the Country, including at events such as the Beltwide Cotton Conference, and he has written on legal issues facing today’s agricultural producers for various publications including the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, The Delta Farm Press, The Southwest Farm Press, and The Arkansas Lawyer.
His Practitioners Guide to the Litigation of Federally Reinsured Crop Insurance Claims, previously published in the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, has received wide recognition and Ballard has worked in the past with the National Agricultural Law Center in its efforts to publish relevant information on Mid-South agricultural law issues.
Kristine Tidgren, Director, Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT); Dolezal Adjunct Associate Professor, Agricultural Education
Kristine Tidgren is an adjunct associate professor in the Agricultural Education & Studies Department and the director for the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT) at Iowa State University. Kristine’s work focuses on studying and interpreting laws impacting the agricultural industry. In particular, she focuses on agricultural taxation.
Since joining CALT in 2013, Kristine has written hundreds of articles and blogposts to keep tax professionals, practicing attorneys, producers, and agribusiness professionals informed about legal developments impacting their business. She also writes technical chapters for the National Income Tax Workbook and regular articles for farm publications. In addition to her writing, Kristine speaks to many professionals and producers each year regarding tax and agricultural law topics. She also plans and provides instruction for CALT-hosted seminars, including the annual federal income tax schools.
Kristine teaches AgEds 451, a four-credit agricultural law class to upper-level undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She also regularly collaborates with other agricultural law and tax professionals throughout the country, including those from the Rural Tax Education Committee, the American Agricultural Law Association, and the Land Grant University Tax Education Foundation. Kristine is licensed to practice law in Iowa and Missouri and is a member of the Iowa Bar Association.
Before coming to ISU, Kristine worked for a legal publishing company and as a practicing attorney. She received her J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.A. in journalism from Iowa State. She grew up on a farm in west central Iowa.
