Biography
Fran Miller is a senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty member at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School (VLS), where she supervises students in the Food and Agriculture Clinic and leads a variety of projects. Fran focuses predominantly on farmland access, overseeing the expansion of CAFS's Farmland Access Legal Toolkit to better serve historically marginalized communities. She also serves private clients through CAFS and the clinic, particularly regarding collaborative and community land ownership and business formation. Fran spent many years as a trademark and copyright lawyer, obtained her LLM in Food and Agriculture Law and Policy at VLS in 2017, and moved to Vermont from New York City in September 2019 to work at CAFS.
Publications
Presentations
“Rethinking Housing and Farmland Ownership through an Equity and Justice Lens,” panelist, Land Trust Alliance Rally (September 2023).
“Translating Research into Action and Policy” and “Engaging with Law and Policy,” panelist, Rural Sociological Society (August 2023).
“Review of Farmland Access Legal Toolkit,” presenter, Land Ethic Mentorship Program for Historically Underserved Farmers & Ranchers, Sand County Foundation (March 2023).
“Heirs’ Property and the Legal Impact Upon American Farmers,” presenter (with Mavis Gragg, Kirstin Nelson, and Lynn Kaiser), USDA/Office of General Counsel (December 2022).
“Community Land Trusts,” webinar co-host (with Sarah Danly), Vital Communities (December 2022).
“Understanding Heirs’ Property at the Community Level,” presenter, Southern Rural Development Center, Atlanta, Ga. (November 2022).
“Urban Agriculture Policy: Research Findings and Listening Session,” panelist (with April Love and Kara Woods), Black Urban Growers conference, Atlanta, Georgia (October 2022).
“From Soil Test to Grave: Farmland Access, Ownership, Easements, and Estate Planning,” invited panelist, Southern Family Farmers and Food Systems Conference, Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance, San Marcos, Texas (August 2022).
“Black Land Matters: Advancing Justice by Mitigating Generational Land Loss,” panelist (with Mavis Gragg and Kirstin Nelson moderating), AALL 2022: Advancing Justice for All, American Association of Law Libraries, Denver, Colorado (July 2022).