WILLIAM A. GILLON
Bill Gillon has been active in agricultural law for 25 years. His work experience includes the USDA Office of General Counsel, Senior Counsel to the Senate Agriculture Committee, General Counsel of the National Cotton Council of America and private practice for the last 7 years. He established his own firm in 2005.
Throughout his career, Bill has been heavily involved in agriculture, international trade, conservation and environmental issues. He has represented the United States and private interests in negotiations with foreign countries, serving as an official Congressional Advisor to the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations from 1988 until 1991, and later serving as a member of the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Cotton, Oilseeds and Tobacco and an official adviser to the Doha Round of Multilateral trade negotiations. He is lead private counsel in the Brazil–U.S. WTO cotton dispute and has worked on the cutting edge of legal developments regarding the introduction of genetically enhanced commodities and the use of electronic warehouse receipts. Bill has represented agricultural businesses and marketing cooperatives.
While in Washington, DC, Bill wrote significant pieces of agriculture, agricultural trade, consumer, and conservation legislation as well as regulations implementing important conservation and agriculture programs.
Bill received his law degree from the University of Georgia, JD '83, and his undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University, BA '80. He was named the 2005 Alumnus of the Year for the Miss. State College of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Tennessee and Georgia bars and is admitted before the U.S. Court of International Trade. He is active on local boards and volunteer organizations. He and his wife Adrienne have two children and reside in Germantown, TN.
CRAIG P. RAYSOR (of Counsel)
Craig Raysor joined the Packers and Stockyards Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in June 2010 but remains "of Counsel" to the firm and is available on a limited basis.
Craig is a graduate of the Masters in Agricultural Law program (LL.M.) at the University of Arkansas School of Law. After finishing his studies in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the spring of 2007, Craig moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he worked with a respected mid-size firm that handled a variety of civil matters. During his tenure with that firm, Craig had the opportunity to become a litigator and try cases in three-fourths of the counties in Tennessee.
During law school, he worked as a legal intern with two
separate Fortune 50 companies, as well as a research fellow with the National
Agricultural Law Center. He authored a paper regarding the history of tobacco
marketing regulations, which chronicled the production side of the tobacco
industry from the Jamestown settlement through the post-tobacco quota buyout
free market of today. It is scheduled to be published in the Drake University School of Law Journal of Agricultural Law Fall 2008 issue.
Craig received his law degree, cum laude, from Roger Williams University School of Law, JD '06, in
Bristol, RI and his undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College, B.S. '03,
in Ashland, VA. He is a member of the Tennessee and the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of Tennessee bars. Craig is a member of Rotary
International, the Cooper-Young Community Association, the alumni advisor for the Phi Alpha Delta chapter at the University of Memphis Cecil Humphrey School of Law, and has made several appearances on
radio to speak about agricultural law issues facing Tennessee.