UK Law's KJEANRL Hosts Fifth Annual Symposium
March 27, 2019
The Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture & Natural Resources Law (KJEANRL), in conjunction with the University of Kentucky College of Law, hosted its fifth annual symposium, which took place in the Senate Chamber of the Gatton Student Center on the University of Kentucky campus, and was free and open to the public.
Legal practitioners and regulators from Kentucky, the District of Columbia, Indiana and Ohio shared their thoughts and participated in discussions covering topics including state-federal relations; thoroughbred racing, wagering and sales; the past, present and future of environment protection; the intersection of agricultural labor and immigration policy; and sports wagering regulation.
KJEANRL student members coordinated the event, led by third-year law students Kyle Bunnell and Lexy Gross, the Executive Development Editor and Editor-in-Chief, respectively.
“It’s amazing in our position to be able to do things that actual attorneys do,” said Bunnell. “We work with Kentucky Bar Association to get continuing education credit, we solicit speakers, we encourage journal members to utilize their resources and give us feedback on what they want to hear about. We get feedback from faculty about emerging areas of the law that some of our faculty write about and explore in their scholarly pursuits and then we come together, and we decide what can we provide to practitioners, what can we provide to legal faculty, and what can we provide to law students to give them a more robust and informed program,” said Bunnell.
“So much of what the KJEANRL stands for are things that implicate all of us,” said Bunnell. The organization covers topics including immigration, sports betting and horse racing, natural resources and environmental law. “We find that these areas are very important not only for scholarly interest of our faculty here and to our student body and our student editors, but also to practitioners in the community at large who can come and get an expert, or a renowned person in the field, talking to them about updates that they may utilize in their own practice.”
“The symposium is really a chance for everyone in this legal community to come together and hear about some of the more recent developments in our subject areas.”
Presenters included:
William M. Lear, Jr., Chairman Emeritus of Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC
Ilya Shapiro, Director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute
Janet G. McCabe, Professor of Practice at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law and Assistant Director for Policy and Implementation at IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute
Kristi Boswell, Senior Advisor to Secretary Sonny Perdue at the United States Department of Agriculture
Douglas L. McSwain, Partner with Wyatt Tarrant & Combs LLP
The morning sessions included presentations titled, “Thoroughbred Racing, Wagering, and Sales: The Keeneland Trifecta,” “High on Federalism: Marijuana’s Challenge to State-Federal Relations,” and “The Past Present, and Future of Environment Protection: Threats and Opportunities.” The afternoon sessions included presentations titled, “The Intersection of Agricultural Labor and Immigration Policy,” and “Is Sports Wagering Coming to the Bluegrass, and if so, How Should it be Regulated?”
“(The symposium is) a lot of fun and it provides a lot of leadership opportunities for students here. It’s been a really wonderful experience,” said Gross. “Five years running strong and we hope many more years to come.”
The KJEANRL is a multi-disciplinary journal of law, science, and policy published twice annually by the University of Kentucky college of Law and edited entirely by students of the College of Law.