Ohio agriculture loses a great man: a tribute to Paul Wright

We mourn the passing of Paul L. Wright, an agricultural attorney, mentor, leader, professor, farmer advocate, and the founder of our OSU Agricultural Law Program.  Paul passed on August 17, 2024, due to cancer.

I remember receiving my first letter from Paul Wright. I had sent him my resume with the hope he and law partner Tony Logan would hire me for their law firm, Wright & Logan.  I was a young attorney and I knew about Paul Wright and his respected reputation as an agricultural attorney. Paul sent me a return letter encouraging my interest in agricultural law and requesting an interview. A few months later, I was working with Paul. That letter gave me the opportunity I so badly wanted, and I’ve held onto it for years.

Paul didn’t set out to become an agricultural law attorney, his passion for agriculture led him there. He grew up on a farm in Coshocton County, Ohio, was active in 4-H and vocational agriculture, and decided to pursue a degree in agricultural education at Ohio State. He then began his career in 1959 as the county 4-H agent for OSU Extension in Madison and Clinton counties. But it didn’t take long for him to recognize his curiosity and natural aptitude for farm management and agricultural economics. While he was completing a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics, OSU Extension promoted Paul into a Farm Management Area Extension Agent position in Fremont, Ohio.

Paul once told me how his work as a Farm Management Specialist for OSU kept pulling him into legal issues, and that he felt compelled to try to solve those issues for farmers. I can easily imagine that, as his desire to help farmers seemed always at the front of his mind. That desire took him to the University of Toledo College of Law for a law degree, and he soon transitioned to become the first Agricultural Law Specialist for Ohio State University, a faculty member in what was then the Department of Agricultural Economics. He shared stories with me about his days of driving across Ohio to teach at farm meetings, equipped with boxes of files, articles he had written, and “overhead transparencies.” Paul said he always tried to be prepared for “whatever legal issue they might want to talk about.” He loved teaching about those legal issues and resolving problems and questions from farmers. In addition to teaching farmers, Paul also established the first agricultural law course at Ohio State, a course still offered to undergraduate students in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

With his knowledge in both law and economics, Paul and Ohio State were well equipped to help farmers during the economic crisis that hit farming in the mid-1980s.  He talked with me about the often painful meetings and kitchen table sessions he had with farmers back then and that despite his knowledge, he again felt the need to do more for farmers. He began connecting with other attorneys across the Midwest and eventually, those connections resulted in the formation of the American Agricultural Law Association—the first official recognition of lawyers who work in agriculture as “agricultural attorneys.” Paul shared that he and other founding members of AALA recognized the role they could fill for farmers and the need to constantly expand their knowledge base and broaden the network of agricultural attorneys and other professionals who could help farmers. He taught for educational sessions at AALA annual conferences, served on committees and the Board of Directors, and was elected to a term as the AALA President. In 1994, the AALA awarded Paul its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

For years, Paul maintained connections with AALA colleagues across the country and met regularly with a group of AALA friends who constantly identified and analyzed issues and needs in agricultural law. When he brought me into that community of colleagues, I always walked away learning something I could use in my work as an agricultural attorney. That type of networking was a common practice for Paul that provides us wisdom today.  In his 1998 presidential address to the AALA, Paul challenged association members to become better attorneys through networking within the agricultural community.  “I wonder how many differences are grounded in a lack of thorough communication, or a lack of taking the time to create a forum to really hear another’s thoughts and knowledge,” Paul stated.  “With confidences and resources, there is hardly an agricultural law issue that cannot be refined and improved as a result of networking.”

Paul retired from OSU in 1988, but many in Ohio know that Paul’s career didn’t end at that point. He wanted to be a private attorney who could personally advise the farm community.  Paul partnered with Tony Logan to form the law firm of Wright & Logan, which was likely the first “agricultural law firm” in Ohio focused on representing farmers. That's when I met Paul and joined the firm.  As a young attorney working with Paul, I lived in both awe and fear—awe for all he had accomplished in agricultural law and fear that I would not live up to his knowledge level and standards. To the contrary, Paul always encouraged and taught me. I often struggled to keep up with his expertise, but he never expressed disappointment in me.

Wright & Logan later transitioned to Wright Law Co., LPA.  When Robert and Kelly Moore joined, the law firm became the current Wright & Moore Co., LPA, now led by Ryan Conklin. Like the farmers he admired, Paul never completely retired from Wright & Moore but continued in an “Of Counsel” capacity and served clients up to his death. In his private law practice, I’d estimate that Paul served hundreds of farm families and prepared hundreds of business, estate and transition plans. He was well known in Ohio’s agricultural community and had clients that stretched across the state. I wonder how many times farmers and others have asked me, “do you know Paul Wright?” and how many times my answer of “yes, I used to work for him” opened doors for me and gave me immediate credibility.  In Ohio’s agricultural community, Paul was a celebrity.

The Ohio agricultural community honored Paul by inducting him into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2006.  I recall receiving an invitation from Paul to sit at his table for the induction ceremony.  He was nervous, excited, and humbled. It was something I had witnessed before with Paul, when Ohio State recognized him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.  Those awards meant so much to him, and he said once that he couldn’t believe a farm boy who had spent his time fixing fences in Coshocton County could ever be so fortunate to have the career and recognition he had.

Paul’s career, recognition, and impact on Ohio agriculture certainly won’t end with his passing.  Being the meticulous and creative estate planner he was, Paul developed a succession plan for agricultural law in Ohio. In 2006, he established an endowment with OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences to further agricultural law and farm management education in Ohio.  Having followed in Paul’s footsteps as the agricultural law specialist at OSU, I have been able to use Paul’s funds in the OSU Agricultural & Resource Law Program to provide educational programs for attorneys, farmers and Extension educators and scholarships for law students and undergraduate students interested in agricultural law.  Paul's goal was to ensure a long-lasting commitment to agricultural law and farm management at Ohio State, and his endowment will carry that goal well into the future.

I’ve thought of trying to locate that old worn letter I received from Paul when I asked him to hire me.  That letter, and knowing Paul, changed my life.  Because of Paul, I and many of my colleagues can repeat his words about the unbelievable fortune of being an agricultural attorney in Ohio.  But I don’t need the letter to remind me of Paul, as his presence has always and will always be embedded in me, in others he has mentored, in Ohio State, and in Ohio’s agricultural community.  The loss is immeasurable, but so is the legacy he left us.