Sarah Vogel
Vogel speaking at the USDA CNAFR, Washington, DC, August. 15, 2012
4th North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner
In office
1989–1997
GovernorGeorge A. Sinner
Ed Schafer
Preceded byH. Kent Jones
Succeeded byRoger Johnson
Personal details
Born1946 (age 77–78)
Political partyDemocratic-NPL
Residence(s)Bismarck, North Dakota, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of North Dakota
New York University School of Law
OccupationAttorney
AwardsAALA Distinguished Service Award (2006), Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year finalist (2011), North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Arc of Justice Award (2017)
[1] [2]

Sarah Vogel is a North Dakota farm advocate, author, former politician, and lawyer who served as the North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture from 1989 to 1997. As a lawyer, she specialized in agricultural law.[3]

Early life and education

Sarah was born in Bismarck, North Dakota in 1946. She is the granddaughter of Frank A. Vogel, chief adviser to William Langer, North Dakota's governor from the Nonpartisan League and U.S. senator. Her father, Robert Vogel, was a former U.S. attorney and member of the North Dakota Supreme Court. Vogel grew up in Mandan, North Dakota, graduating from Mandan High School in 1964. After graduating from University of North Dakota in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she attended and graduated from New York University School of Law.[2]

Career

Law & Advocacy

Prior to her public service career, Sarah Vogel served as special assistant[4] to the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington DC. Returning to her home state of North Dakota, she represented family farmers during the 1980s farm crisis, most significantly as lead attorney in Coleman v. Block,[5] a national class action case filed on behalf of 240,000 farmers,[6] which resulted in an injunction prohibiting USDA from foreclosing on 16,000 farm families.[2] Her work on the case was featured in Life Magazine[7][8] and later became the basis of the 1984 movie Country,[2] starring Jessica Lange, earning the actress an Academy Award nomination.[9]

After retiring as Agriculture Commissioner, Vogel returned to private practice[10] at Wheeler Wolf Firm and later founded the Sarah Vogel Law Partners in Bismarck, North Dakota, where she practiced law with three other attorneys. Vogel was co-counsel Keepseagle vs. Vilsack,[11] a national class-action lawsuit which resulted in a $680 million settlement for Native American farmers affected by the USDA's discriminatory lending practices.[1] In 2011, Vogel went into solo law practice. Sarah Vogel Law Partners is now known as Braaten Law Office.[12]

Public service

Vogel became an assistant attorney general[13] in 1985. In 1986, she was named one of 20 young attorneys making a difference in the country[2] by the American Bar Association. In 1988, she was elected North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture, becoming the first woman in the U.S. to be elected for the position. In 1992 she was re-elected, serving through 1997. In her role as North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture, she also served on the state's Industrial Commission,[14] Water Commission,[15] and Agricultural Products Utilization Commission.[16] With Senator Kent Conrad, she co-founded Marketplace of Ideas,[17] becoming the nation's largest rural development program conference at the time. Vogel advocated for farmer-owned cooperatives. She was succeeded by Roger Johnson.[1]

In 1996, Vogel ran for a seat on the North Dakota Supreme Court, a bid that was ultimately unsuccessful.[1]

Writing

Continuing her advocacy for family farmers, in 2016 she co-wrote an op-ed[18] with musician Willie Nelson against North Dakota Measure 1, which would have furthered corporate farming in the state. The measure did not pass.[19]

The Coleman v Block case is the subject of Vogel's first book The Farmer's Lawyer, published by Bloomsbury Publishers in 2021.[20]

Awards and honors

• 2006 American Agricultural Law Association Distinguished Service Award[21]

• 2011 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist[22]

• 2012 North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Arc of Justice Award[23]

Bibliography

• 1984 “The Law of Hard Times: Debtor and Farmer Relief Actions of the 1933 North Dakota Legislative Session” North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 60[24]

• 1994 “The Effects of NAFTA upon North Dakota State Law” North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 70 : No. 3, Article 1[25]

• 2021 The Farmer's Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm(Bloomsbury)[20]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Nowatzki, Mike (November 3, 2015). "Former ND ag commissioner exploring run for governor". The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Anderson, Anna (October 15, 2004). "Women and Sustainable Agriculture: Interviews with 14 Agents of Change (page 113-114)". ISBN 9780786427048. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Sarah M. Vogel". North Dakota Supreme Court. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  4. ↑ ,"Attorney worked to stop foreclosures during '80s farm crisis", wctrib.com;retrieved October 15, 2021.
  5. ↑ "United States – Agricultural Finance – The Farmers Home Administration Has a Statutory Duty to Inform Borrowers of Loan Deferral Procedures Pursuant to 7 U.S.C. § 1981A and to Provide Borrowers with Notice and an Opportunity to be Heard Before Terminating Income for Necessary Living and Operating Expenses" (PDF). The National Agricultural Law Center. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Learning from the 1980's farm crisis". NDFU.org.
  7. ↑ ""Going Under: North Dakota Lawyer Sarah Vogel Fights to Save Family Farms"". Life Magazine. November 8, 1982. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  8. ↑ "LIFE Photo Essay". GreyVillet.com.
  9. ↑ "Jessica Lange, Awards". IMDB.com.
  10. ↑ "Former North Dakota Ag Commissioner Sarah Vogel taking a step back from the law". GrandForksHerald.com. 19 May 2011.
  11. ↑ "Two tracks available for claims in Keepseagle settlement". AGWeek.com. 4 August 2011.
  12. ↑ "About page". BraatenLawFirm.com.
  13. ↑ "Vogel forms exploratory committee in mulling run for governor". TheDickensonPress.com. 23 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "ND Industrial Commission falls 8 months behind on meeting min..." The Bismarck Tribune.
  15. ↑ "North Dakota State Water Commission Telephone Conference Call Meeting, May 24, 1996" (PDF). swc.state.nd.us.
  16. ↑ "NDAG Letter to Vogel (Feb 20, 1991)" (PDF). libraray.nd.gov.
  17. ↑ "Evaluation of Marketplace of Ideas 1999". Yumpu.com.
  18. ↑ "Measure 1 is About the Soul of North Dakota". FarmAid.org. June 9, 2016.
  19. ↑ "North Dakota 2016 ballot measures". Ballotpedia.org.
  20. 1 2 "The Farmer's Lawyer, The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm". Bloomsbury.com.
  21. ↑ "Distinguished Service Award". aglaw-assn.org.
  22. ↑ "California Team Wins Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for Case Against Nursing Home Chain". publicjustics.net. May 2012.
  23. ↑ "The Arc of Justice". ndhrc.org. December 2016.
  24. ↑ "The Law of Hard Times: Debtor and Farmer Relief Actions of the 1933 North Dakota Legislative Session" (PDF). nationalaglawcenter.org.
  25. ↑ Vogel, Sarah (January 1994). "The Effects of NAFTA upon North Dakota State Law". North Dakota Law Review. 70 (3): 485–508.
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