Peggy Kirk Hall, an associate professor in the College of Food, Agriculture & Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University, received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Agricultural Law Association on Oct. 26 during the association’s annual conference in Portland, Oregon.
“Peggy has been a long-time member of AALA, serving in a variety of ways, including as president, presenter, moderator, committee member and in almost every capacity AALA has called upon her for service,” said Jennifer Zwagerman, AALA president. “Peggy encourages thoughtful discussion no matter which group she is working with and clearly demonstrates her ongoing commitment to the agriculture community and legal profession based upon the amount of time and energy she puts into all of her activities.”
The Distinguished Service Award is given annually to an AALA member for contributions to the organization and to agricultural law. The award recipient, chosen by the three most recent award winners, is selected based upon consistent demonstration of dedication to furthering the development of agricultural law, strengthening the legal profession, increasing the size and influence of AALA, and fulfilling the law-related information needs of lawyers and citizens alike.
“It is next to impossible to describe how much Peggy’s devotion and service to AALA means to the organization,” Zwagerman said. “The amount of time she devotes to AALA, her determination to help the organization succeed well into the future, and the fact she does all of it with kindness and a smile means more to all of us than can be expressed in just a few words.”
Hall earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in natural resource policy from OSU and earned her Juris Doctorate from University of Wyoming College of Law, where she focused on natural resource and agricultural law and was a member of the Land and Water Law Review. As an associate professor in the OSU Department of Extension, she is involved in teaching, research and outreach. In addition to teaching an agribusiness law class, Hall serves as a field specialist and directs the OSU Agricultural and Resource Law Program. She received AALA’s Excellence in Agricultural Law Award for Academia in 2016 and this year also received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.
“AALA has provided me with so many benefits and the opportunity to work with agricultural attorneys from around the country,” Hall said. “I’m thankful that Ohio State encourages us to serve our professions, and I hope that I’ve given this organization as much as I’ve received from it.”
Hall is also a partner with the National Agricultural & Food Law Consortium, a four-university partnership with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and National Agricultural Library designed to enhance and expand the delivery of objective agricultural and food law research and information to the nation’s agricultural community.
Hall has served as a faculty senator in OSU’s University Senate, as chairwoman of the Ohio State Bar Association Agricultural Law Committee and on the Advisory Board for the National Agricultural Law Center. Prior to her current position, she was a Staff Attorney for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs and an Associate Attorney with Wright & Logan LPA, an agricultural law firm in Ohio. Hall and her family farm in Union County, Ohio.
Established in 1980, the American Agricultural Law Association is a national professional association serving as the premier association for agricultural law and policy professionals. Its mission is informing and engaging the law and policy professionals who serve all facets of the agricultural and food communities. For more information, visit aglaw-assn.org.