Roger A. McEowen serves as the Professor of Agricultural Law and Taxation at Washburn University School of Law, located in Topeka, Kansas.
Up until 2015, he held the position of Leonard Dolezal Professor in Agricultural Law at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, and served as the Director of the ISU Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT), an organization he established. During his tenure, CALT operated without relying on taxpayer funding, covering all staff salaries, benefits, office expenses, equipment, supplies, and travel through revenue from seminars, educational events, and related materials. At Iowa State, he developed and launched an agricultural law course for undergraduates, starting as an experimental offering and expanding it to nearly 100 enrolled students by the spring of 2015. He consistently earned the top speaker ratings at the yearly fall CALT tax schools up to 2015. Prior to starting at Iowa State in 2004, he worked as an associate professor of agricultural law and an extension specialist in agricultural law and policy at Kansas State University. From 1991 to 1993, he practiced law full-time at the firm of Kelley, Scritsmier and Byrne in North Platte, Nebraska.
In addition to his primary role, McEowen instructs an undergraduate agricultural law course at Kansas State University and has acted as a visiting professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he has taught in both the J.D. and L.L.M. programs. He has also delivered instruction at Washburn Law School in the past, as well as at the Drake University School of Law Summer Institute in Agricultural Law.
His scholarly work includes articles published in outlets such as the Journal of Agricultural Taxation and Law, Indiana Law Review, Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, North Dakota Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, Monthly Digest of Tax Articles, Tax Notes, West’s Social Security Reporting System, Toledo Law Review, Washburn Law Journal, Creighton Law Review, Agricultural Law Update, and the Agricultural Law Digest. He authored Principles of Agricultural Law, an 850-page textbook and casebook that receives updates twice each year, along with a separate 300-page volume on agricultural law topics. His blog, the Agricultural Law and Taxation Blog, which is affiliated with the Law Professor Blogs Network, features around 130 in-depth, annotated articles per year and stands as the most popular blog in the field of agricultural law and taxation. In mid-2017, West Academic Publishing released his book Agricultural Law in a Nutshell. McEowen also produces the monthly newsletter “Kansas Farm and Estate Law.” Furthermore, he co-authors two Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) Tax Management Portfolios focused on the federal estate tax deduction for family-owned businesses and the reporting of farm income, and he is the primary author of a BNA portfolio on the income taxation of cooperatives. He edits the Iowa Bar Tax Manual, as well as the Thomson/West titles Estate Planning for Farmers and Ranchers and Family Business Organizations.
Professor McEowen delivers between 80 and 100 seminars each year throughout the United States, targeting audiences of farmers, agricultural business experts, attorneys, and tax specialists. He hosts two radio shows that broadcast twice a month, reaching listeners across the Midwest and via online platforms. Additionally, his daily two-minute segment, “The Agricultural Law and Tax Report,” airs on weekdays to more than 2 million people on farm radio stations spanning from New York to California, including on SiriusXM channel 147. He appears weekly as a guest on RFD-TV, where he covers a range of agricultural law and tax issues with the program’s hosts.
In 2003, McEowen received the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA) Distinguished Service Award, making him the youngest person ever to earn this honor. He has also been awarded the AALA’s excellence recognition for professional scholarship. In 2006, he was elected as President-Elect of the AALA.
He earned a B.S. with distinction in Management from Purdue University in 1986, followed by an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University in 1990, and a J.D. from Drake University School of Law in 1991.
McEowen belongs to the Iowa and Kansas Bar Associations and holds admission to practice in Nebraska. He previously served on the AALA Board of Directors.