Agribusiness
Practice Areas
Agribusiness
Grain Production
Constantly fluctuating regulations and markets force grain production and marketing to be subject to external pressures not seen by many industries. Conroy Baran advises its clients on the contract and regulatory laws that affect planting, cultivating, harvesting, and marketing of grain. The firm’s services include preparing and negotiating production agreements, crop shares, hybrid leases, cash rent leases, custom farming arrangements, grain marketing alternatives (including forward contracting), dealer licensing, storage and transportation relationships, equipment leases and purchase agreements, lending relationships, and land use rights.
Your job, whether it is production, sales, or purchasing, is enough to keep you busy. Our role as your adviser is to lift the legal burden off of your operations, so that you can do your job – simply and successfully.
Land Use
America’s changing landscape has reduced the availability of producing farming land, increasing the importance on properly utilizing and securing existing resources. Land ownership comes with a bundle of property rights, but those rights are often misunderstood or underutilized. Conroy Baran advises its agribusiness clients on the means of protecting and developing their property through alternative forms of income and use for farm, pasture, and water properties.
The firm’s services include preparing and negotiating easements, alternative leasing relationships (such as hunting leases, shooting ranges, and other forms of agritourism), public use and eminent domain proceedings, federal conservation programs, rural development programs, fencing laws and neighboring property rights, subsurface property rights, and liability implications from property use.
Your land is the most valuable asset you own. We can help you protect that asset and maximize its value.
Succession Planning
Agribusiness presents unique challenges when the time comes to handle the company’s succession. The vast majority of agriculture operations are family-owned ventures, often passing ownership through multiple generations. Thus, transitioning an agribusiness to its next phase of management or ownership requires not only a multi-disciplinary approach with regard to the laws that govern company ownership, but doing so while maintaining the personal relationships involved with the company.
The firm’s advisory services include training and implementing controls for internal management, structuring property transfers, assessing “readiness,” implementing a transfer strategy, and implementing an exit strategy for existing members.
We recognize that your business means more than just a bottom line. Each succession plan is designed to protect the integrity of the business operations and relationships that have made it successful.
Corporate Governance
Most agribusinesses are closely held or family operated ventures, which present unique situations for implementing corporate governance and culture. Conroy Baran works with family boards to ensure that they are equipped to have the right business relationships in place to help ensure that their relationships remain healthy, while promoting the needs of the business.
The firm’s advisory services include best practices for boards and committee members, director and officer fiduciary duties and relationships, navigating conflicts of interests and related party transactions, implementing executive compensation, review, drafting and amending articles of incorporation, bylaws, programs, policies, and codes of conduct, executive succession planning (including family transitions in management), risk management programs, and internal audits and investigations.
We work to ensure that the relationships that made your company successful are protected throughout its life cycle.