ATTORNEYS
MICHAEL R. MCLEOD
Michael R. McLeod has been in practice since 1967, specializing in food and agricultural law and legislation, and issues that affect small businessmen. He is known nationwide as an expert in the field. As the counsel and legislative representative of many of the nation’s top food and agricultural organizations, he has written and spoken extensively in matters relating to small businessmen and agricultural law.
He began his career as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Herman Talmadge. He then served as Counsel to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry from 1971-74, and later as General Counsel and Staff Director to that same committee from 1974-78. During his service on Capitol Hill, Mr. McLeod was responsible for the drafting of several significant legislative initiatives. During his earliest years on the committee staff, he was primarily focused on rural development, including the Farm Credit Act of 1971, the Rural Telephone Bank Act of 1971, and the Rural Development Act of 1972. Subsequently his work included legislation for the creation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, forestry management reform, and pesticide use and registration. Mr. McLeod played a major role in the drafting of legislation for the 1977 Farm Bill, and he has been extensively involved in every subsequent farm bill.
In 1978, he moved to the private sector and now serves as counsel to many of the nation's top food and agribusiness trade associations. He also represents agribusiness corporations, food companies, and the insurance industry before Congress and federal agencies. His extensive knowledge of the legislative process and his years of experience on Capitol Hill enhance his role in the firm's government relations practice. He has successfully assisted various trade associations to develop promotion and research programs for such commodities as dairy, beef, mushrooms, soybeans, avocados, and eggs.
Mr. McLeod publishes www.AgricultureLaw.com, the nation’s top website on agriculture law (based on Google rankings). This site provides daily summaries of agricultural news as well as extensive links to other sources of agricultural law and information resources. He is also the author of various articles in journals such as Top Producer, Successful Farmer and Farm Futures, and USAgriculture.
Mr. McLeod received his AB degree in economics from the University of Georgia and his Juris Doctor degree from American University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association.
Wayne R. Watkinson devotes the majority of his practice to corporations and associations involved in agriculture and agribusiness. He has particular expertise in commodity promotion and marketing issues. For almost two decades, he has worked with the dairy and beef industries to develop and implement their successful commodity promotion and research programs. In addition, he has counseled several other commodity groups on the establishment of similar programs, including honey, mushrooms, soybeans, fluid milk, watermelons, and peanuts.
In addition to domestic market activities, Mr. Watkinson serves as counsel to import markets and organizations such as the United States Dairy Export Council. As part of his representation of agriculture commodity sectors, Mr. Watkinson has been involved in extensive restructuring and mergers of organizations and companies.
Mr. Watkinson also maintains an administrative law practice. He represents clients in the areas of technology transfer, technology commercialization, health care issues, the Freedom of Information Act, and patent and trademark law.
Mr. Watkinson often gives presentations at various conventions and meetings on agricultural topics and offers his insight on pending agricultural legislation. He is a frequent contributing writer to The Agricultural Law Letter.
Prior to his private practice, Mr. Watkinson served on the staff of U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University, and he is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association.
Marc E. Miller’s areas of legal practice include agricultural commodity promotion programs, general corporate and commercial, government ethics, and intellectual property. He also advises clients on contract negotiations and federal administrative and regulatory matters. Prior to his private practice, Mr. Miller served as Administrative Assistant to U.S. Representative Lester Wolff and to Representative Thomas Downey.
Mr. Miller represents and counsels numerous small and medium-size businesses in all phases of their activities, ranging from government relations firms to defense contractors to food services, to start-up "dot.coms."
Mr. Miller has expertise in government ethics law. He is author of "Politicians and Their Spouses’ Careers" (Congressional Management Foundation, 1986), a guide book on legal and ethical issues for families in public service. He has represented and counseled numerous civil service employees and elected officials on ethics issues, and counsels clients on lobbying law and election law.
Intellectual property is another area where Mr. Miller provides representation to diverse clients. He is experienced in trademark and copyright law, including licensing of trademarks, copyrights, and patents. He is also experienced in several areas of entertainment law, having represented authors, songwriters, performers, photographers, filmmakers, and television news figures. He serves as counsel to The National Theatre in Washington, D.C. Mr. Miller has lectured on legal issues of importance to filmmakers for Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, and is the co-author of "Answers to Common Legal Questions of Independent Film and Video Makers" (WALA 1991). He has served on the Board of Directors of the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive.
For more than 20 years, he has advised importers and exporters on international trade matters. Mr. Miller has handled anti-dumping and countervailing duty matters before the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce. He has successfully handled proceedings opposing granting of duty free status to imports under the Generalized System of Preferences. With respect to exports, Mr. Miller has worked with the GSM 102 and 103 programs, the Market Promotion Program, and the Export Enhancement Program.
Mr. Miller graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He then attended Harvard Law School where he received his Juris Doctor degree. He is a member of the New York Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. He is a Trustee of the SEED Public Charter School of Washington, D.C.
Richard T. Rossier has specialized in commercial and business litigation for 24 years. Since 1991, he has concentrated his practice in the area of agricultural law and litigation and is a partner in the Washington, D.C. agricultural law firm of McLeod, Watkinson & Miller, which represents many federal and state commodity promotion boards.
Mr. Rossier has a lengthy list of reported decisions, including his successful defense of a constitutional challenge to the Beef Promotion Act in Goetz v. Glickman, 149 F.3d 1131 (10th Circuit 1998), affirming, 920 F.Supp. 1173 (D. Kan. 1996), and more recently in Charter v. USDA, 230 F.Supp.2d 1121 (D.Mont. 2002); his successful defense of a constitutional challenge to the Hass Avocado Promotion Act, Avocados Plus, Inc. v. Veneman, (No. 02-1798 (GK))(D.D.C. Feb. 14, 2003); his successful prosecution of a trademark infringement case against a major food service company in American Angus Association v. Sysco Corp., 829 F.Supp. 807 (W.D.N.C. 1992), and of a securities fraud case in Ohman v. Kahn, 685 F.Supp. 1302 (S.D.N.Y. 1988).
In Charter, Mr. Rosser, along with government lawyers representing the Beef Board and the USDA, urged the Court to rule that the speech of the Beef Board is government speech not subject to First Amendment limitations. The Charter Court agreed with this argument in November 2002 despite a rejection of the same argument in a similar challenge to the Beef Promotion Act months before by the South Dakota District Court (LMA v. Veneman, 207 F.Supp.2d 992 (D.S.D. 2002), affirmed by 8th Circuit (July 8, 2003), rev'd sub nom, Johanns v. LMA (decided May 23, 2005)(Beef Promotion Act produces government speech immune from the First Amendment). He has also participated in the preparation of an amicus curiae brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Glickman v. Wileman Brothers, 521 U.S. 457 (1997), urging the Supreme Court to reject a First Amendment challenge to a federal commodity promotion law for California tree fruit. He also participated in the preparation of an amicus curiae brief in United States v. United Foods, Inc., 533 U.S. 405 (2001), that involved a First Amendment challenge to the Mushroom Promotion Act. More recently he participated in moot courts of Gregory Garre of Hogan & Hartson in connection with the oral argument at the Supreme Court of Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Assoc.
In Cochran v. Veneman, 252 F.Supp.2d 126 (2003), Mr. Rossier, along with government lawyers representing the Dairy Board and the USDA, urged the Court to rule that the speech of the Dairy Board did not violate the First Amendment. This argument prevailed at the District Court but was later reversed by the Third Circuit in Cochran v. Veneman, 359 F.3d 263 (3rd Cir. 2004). Mr. Rossier then filed a petition for certiorari seeking review by the Supreme Court. The U.S. Solicitor General also filed a petition. Following the Supreme Court's decision in Johanns v. LMA, the Supreme Court granted both petitions and vacated the judgment of the Third Circuit, and remanded for further proceedings.
Mr. Rossier has written several articles focusing on constitutional topics, including several that focus on the key First Amendment commodity promotion cases of Wileman Brothers and United Foods decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 and 2001.
Mr. Rossier is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan and of Georgetown University Law School. He lives in McLean, Virginia.
Charles A. Spitulnik is a versatile attorney with twenty-one years experience in the practice of law, including partnership at a major firm. He has extensive experience in general corporate matters, labor and employee relations, transportation, federal regulatory practice, and litigation. He has management and operating experience as President and Chief Operating Officer of a railroad industry car management firm.
In recent years, his practice has been devoted primarily to work in various facets of the rail industry. His primary current focus is on representation of emerging commuter rail and transit authorities. This work includes assessing how to identify and then secure rights of way, in selecting and negotiating with operators of the commuter service, and in addressing regulatory, labor, and other issues that arise. His practice also includes assisting freight carriers in the planning and submission of transactions which require governmental approval. He has expertise in railway and airline labor law, both under the Railway Labor Act and the Interstate Commerce Act, in leasing and other issues related to rail equipment acquisition and ownership, and in regulation of rail equipment pools.
Mr. Spitulnik has a broad background of experience that includes extensive representation of clients in the transportation industry, tenure as President and Chief Operating Officer of Fleet Management, Inc., and partnership in a major Chicago and Washington, D.C. law firm. He is active in professional and civic organizations. He serves as Vice President, Finance of the Musical Theater Center, and Chairman, Board of Directors of the Washington Waldorf School.
Mr. Spitulnik is admitted to practice in District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C., Third, Seventh and Ninth Circuits, and the U.S. District Court for D.C., the Eastern District of Virginia and the Eastern District of Michigan. He is a member of the American, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland Bar Associations and the Association of Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy, for which he edits the Commuter Rail Column in the Association’s Highlights.
Mr. Spitulnik received his law degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, his M.S.W. from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, and his B.A. with high honors from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. He also has received continuing education at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Richard Pasco is an attorney and lobbyist with the firm, who represents agribusiness clients on the entire spectrum of concerns, including food, agricultural, trade, and environmental issues. He has more than 18 years of experience working on agriculture and food-related legislative and regulatory matters. Mr. Pasco has represented and provided counsel to associations and companies in the avocado, frozen food, peanuts, cereal, floral and pork industries.
Before joining the firm in 1995, Mr. Pasco was Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council -- a trade association representing 90,000 members in 45 states. From 1985 to 1987, he served as Legislative Assistant to the late Senator Edward Zorinsky, then-Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
He has a wealth of experience working with Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration. He has played a key role in implementing aggressive lobbying strategies and advancing agricultural program and trade reforms, as well as environmental guidelines and food labeling, food safety, and nutrition legislation.
Mr. Pasco currently serves on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Tobacco, Cotton and Planting Seeds. He also was previously appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to serve on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee on Trade in Livestock and Livestock Products, and the National Advisory Council for Commodity Distribution. He also served on the Board of the American Commodity Distribution Association and was one of the founders of the Agricultural Clean Water Working Group. He is the co-author of “Blowing Smoke: Does Congress Lack the Willpower to Reform Federal Tobacco Policies’ (Journal of Medicine and Law, Michigan State University Detroit College of Law).
Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., Mr. Pasco was a general civil and criminal law practitioner in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and went on to earn a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Nebraska. Mr. Pasco has been admitted to the bar for the District of Columbia, and to the State and U.S. District Courts for Nebraska and Colorado.
As a valued member of the firm, Mr. Pasco is uniquely qualified to bring his broad experience to bear in helping to solve the problems of clients in the private sector.
Alex Menendez has experience in general corporate matters, real estate, labor and employee relations, product liability, medical malpractice, commercial litigation, and trial practice. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland and Virginia, and before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Virginia, and Maryland. He received his J.D. from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. in 1992 and received his BA from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey in 1989.
Mr. Menendez has expertise in administrative actions and federal court matters involving sanitary and phytosanitary measures as they relate to the import of food into the United States. He handles a wide range of issues on behalf of the firm, such as the analysis and evaluation of principles and procedures for trade including harmonization, equivalence, risk-assessment, and transparency as they relate to the protection of agriculture from avoidable damage by hazardous organisms, and the avoidance of unjustifiable trade barriers.
Amy Jones has experience in general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance and commercial litigation. She is admitted to practice in New York. She received her J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, in 1999, where she was a member of the Texas International Law Journal. She received a B.A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1993.
Christopher J. Salisbury began his career as an aide to Senator Richard Lugar, serving as Professional Staff Member for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry under then-Chairman Lugar. During his tenure on the Committee, Mr. Salisbury was closely involved in a number of major pieces of legislation, including the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, with particular involvement in the Act's Trade Title. After leaving Capitol Hill, he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) as Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of International Affairs. At FSIS, he worked on import and export issues and was closely involved in a broad array of the agency's regulatory work in both domestic and international contexts.
Serving in the legislative and executive branches of government, Mr. Salisbury gained extensive public policy experience in food safety, international trade and international food aid matters. Mr. Salisbury has experience in administrative, regulatory, agricultural, international trade and food and drug law. He joined the firm in 2005.
Mr. Salisbury received his J.D. from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. in 2004, and his B.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana in 1996. He is a member of the Maryland Bar.
Kleiman is leading authority in Internet law and public policy practice. She specializes in the technical, legal and policy issues of the Internet domain name system. Since the mid-1990s she has represented the interests of small businesses, individuals and noncommercial organizations in testimony and meetings before the Congress, White House, Department of Commerce, US Patent and Trademark Office, US State Department and World Intellectual Property Organization.
Kleiman works closely with issues pending before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). She was a founder of ICANN's Noncommercial Constituency, and served two terms as its elected North American representative to ICANN's Names Council (executive body of the Domain Name Supporting Organization). Kleiman was a drafter of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy, and is an expert on the rights of both trademark and domain name holders in the domain name system.
Prior to entering the Internet law field, Kleiman practiced telecommunications law in Rosslyn, Virginia. She worked on regulatory issues involving telephone, television and radio, satellite and spread spectrum technologies.
From 1987-1990, Kleiman worked on Wall Street as a data communications manager and database programmer for Morgan Stanley. She also served as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse's Manhattan Office, specializing in data security and disaster recovery consulting and auditing.
Kleiman received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University, cum laude, and her law degree from Boston University School of Law, cum laude.
