Legal Skills I Learned Growing Up on a Farm

I live in a 1930s red-brick farmhouse on my family’s cattle farm in Crossville, Tennessee. When you come into my home, you might notice my headwear: a cowboy hat, a fedora, a Methodist Church summer camp hat, a Tennessee State Parks hat, a US Department of Agriculture hat, a Tennessee Tech University hat, and many others. Each represents different hats I wear in my personal and professional life: I help manage my family’s beef cattle farm; I teach environmental law and agricultural law; I serve as a part-time local pastor; I have leadership roles at two land conservation organizations; and I am the managing partner of the law firm I founded.