Joel L. McKie, Partner

Business Lawyer
Joel provides counsel to a variety of businesses on transactional, regulatory, and dispute matters.  Joel prides himself on learning his client’s business and providing tailored advice based on his client’s needs. Joel and his team regularly provide outside general counsel services, guiding clients through contract negotiations and drafting, buying and selling assets, and counseling clients on various compliance and regulatory matters.  An experienced litigator, Joel prosecutes and defends claims in litigation and arbitration regarding business disputes.  Joel has extensive experience assisting clients across numerous industries, including with a focus in agriculture, food, construction, solar, energy and healthcare.

Agribusiness and Food
Having grown up on a diversified family farm in Georgia, Joel has extensive experience in the agriculture industry.  Joel’s background, knowledge, and understanding of agronomic principles, commodity markets, and overall industry practices uniquely position Joel to help his clients achieve positive outcomes for his farm and agribusiness clients.

Joel counsels farm and agribusiness clients, both institutional and family-owned, during every stage of farmland and agricultural operations transactions, including negotiations, due diligence, closing, and post-closing integration and operations. He and his team provide outside general counsel services for numerous agribusinesses on a variety of commercial issues, including negotiating supply and vendor agreements, leasing, compliance, and employment matters.

Joel is also an experienced business litigator and regulatory advisor with experience across a wide range of agriculture-related legal issues. Joel has specific expertise in the Packers and Stockyards Act and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Additional representative matters include pesticide drift, food adulteration, seed warranties, the Farm Service Agency programs, H2A and FLSA issues arising from farm labor arrangements, and federal crop insurance arbitration proceedings. He regularly represents clients with issues before the Georgia Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and Georgia Public Service Commission.

Real Estate
Joel assists clients in acquiring and divesting farmland, timberland and other recreational properties, packing and processing facilities, livestock operations, storage warehouses, and other commercial real estate. Acting both as local and lead counsel, Joel drafts and negotiates purchase and sale agreements for diverse types of real properties in rural, suburban, and urban areas.  Joel assembles the right team of subject matter experts and leads that group through due diligence (including title, survey, zoning, and environmental matters), closing, and integration. Joel also regularly advises parties on commercial finance, leasing, solar and natural resource leasing and development.

Joel has also litigated matters involving partition suits, real estate transactions, timber conversion, and finance, including one of the leading cases on wrongful farmland foreclosure in Georgia.

Community and Industry Involvement
Joel is the current section chair of the Agriculture Section of the State Bar of Georgia. Joel is a past President of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association and a former member of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council. Joel previously served as a treasurer and on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture.  A former State President and National Vice President for the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America), Joel was twice appointed by former Governor Sonny Perdue to the Agricultural Education Advisory Commission.

In 2022, the University of Georgia Alumni Association recognized as one of its 40 under 40. Joel was recognized in 2011 with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association Young Alumni Achievement Award.

Joel is active in the Georgia Agribusiness Council, a lifetime member of the National FFA Alumni Association, and a member of the American Agricultural Law Association. Joel has been a guest speaker for the American Agricultural Law Association, the State Bar of Georgia Agriculture Law Section, the University of Georgia School of Law Annual Red Clay Conference, the Georgia Young Farmer Association, Georgia Farm Bureau, the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetables, the Georgia Agricultural Labor Relations Forum, and the Georgia Agritourism Association. Joel and his wife are members of Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Decatur, Georgia, and the owners of a commercial cattle operation on the family farm in Wilcox County, Georgia.

Email: jmckie@fh2.com
Phone: (770) 399-9500
LinkedIn: Joel McKie

Admitted: Georgia

Admissions: Georgia Court of Appeals, Supreme Court; U.S. District Court for the Northern District, Middle District and Southern District of Georgia; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Education: University of Georgia, J.D., cum laude; University of Georgia, B.S. Agribusiness, summa cum laude; Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, A.S., highest honors

Honors: University of Georgia Alumni Association recognized as one of its 40 under 40 (2022). University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association Young Alumni Achievement Award (2011).

Member: State Bar of Georgia. Member and Current Chair of the Agriculture Law Section.  Member Georgia Agribusiness Council,  lifetime member of the National FFA Alumni Association, and member of the American Agricultural Law Association.