A LITTLE ABOUT ME

Kate Z. Graham, Esq.

I'm an attorney practicing in the areas of estate planning, elder law, and small business with a special focus on agriculture and food businesses.  My professional life has been shaped by a variety of experiences, including my childhood in Minnesota, my experience at a rural liberal arts college, working on farms, teaching, traveling, and living abroad.  These experiences have taught me how to approach client concerns holistically, and to trust the client's instincts and my own.  I seek to bring a diversity of viewpoints to find creative solutions to complex problems, whether that's in a client meeting or in a classroom.

I was educated at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in American Studies.  After taking a break from school to work in agriculture and to teach English in France, I returned to school to study the law.  I was awarded a Juris Doctorate from William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law), where I served as Executive Editor of the Law Review.  My first job as a lawyer was working for judges on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.  Later, I worked in private practice at an established elder law firm in the Twin Cities for over three years, and at a firm in New Ulm, Minnesota for over one year. In order to better serve my clients, I started my own private law practice based in the Twin Cities metro area.

In 2019, I completed a Masters of Law (LL.M.) Degree at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in Agriculture and Food Law.  At the University, I served as a graduate assistant, teaching a wills and trust drafting class to law school students.  The focus of my academic work has been on developing strategies to support the next generation of farmers, from farm transition to regulatory compliance and policy approaches to support beginning and disadvantaged farmers.