Industry experts to discuss compliance with new food safety laws

DALLAS (SMU) — After the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 led to the nation’s most sweeping food safety laws in seven decades, ones aimed at preventing food contamination and recalls, commercial challenges for compliance are “The New Normal for the Food Industry” — and the focus of the first 2015 Food Law Forum at SMU Dedman School of Law Feb. 13.

Using a hypothetical food supply contamination scenario, speakers representing major food industry purveyors and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will join leaders from major legal, insurance, waste management and public relations firms to discuss best practices in emergency action planning, managing evolving and conflicting facts, understanding state and federal enforcement, handling a food recall and more.

Panel discussions will be held from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at SMU Dedman School of Law’s Hillcrest Classroom in the Underwood Law Library, 6550 Hillcrest Ave. The Forum is free, but attendees must register online.  

The event offers 5.5 hours of CLE credit.

Keynote speakers, FDA recall coordinators Casey Hamblin and Kenitra Hewitt, will talk from noon to 1:15 p.m. Professor Nathan Cortez, SMU Dedman School of Law Associate Dean of Research, will provide closing comments.

Co-sponsors of the event are SMU Dedman School of Law, Strasburger Attorneys at Law, waste management experts SteriCycle, Roach Howard Smith & Barton and Golin.

For the forum’s agenda visit http://www.strasburger.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Updated-Food-Law-Forum-Overview-and-Agenda.pdf. To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2015-food-law-forum-tickets-15272264755.

For more details, contact emilie.strozier@strasburger.com.

About SMU’s Dedman School of Law:

The School of Law at SMU was founded in 1925. It was named Dedman School of Law in 2001 in honor of Dallas benefactors Nancy and Robert H. Dedman, Sr., and their family. SMU Dedman Law enjoys a national and international reputation of distinction. It is among the most competitive law schools in the country for admission, as well as one of the most successful in the placement of its graduates. 

The faculty is comprised of highly talented, distinguished scholars and teachers who are leaders in their fields and have outstanding academic and scholastic credentials. Dedman Law students are immersed in an intense professional legal curriculum with opportunities to obtain real-world experience through extensive legal clinics, public service placements, academic externships and clerkships.

In U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools” report released earlier this year, SMU Dedman School of Law ranked 42^nd , an increase of six points from last year’s ranking of 48^th among 194 law schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association. In Texas, SMU is one of only two law schools in the first tier of “best schools of law” category.

Additionally, The National Law Journal ranked SMU Dedman Law 22^nd among all law schools for graduates employed in long-term jobs requiring bar passage.

Dedman Law graduates include CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Texas Supreme Court justices, federal court judges, members of Congress, ambassadors, foreign ministers and justices on the highest courts worldwide, as well as partners at leading law firms and general counsels at major corporations. Dedman Law graduates practice law in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and on all seven continents.

As SMU enters its second century of achievement, the Dedman School of Law continues to be dedicated to the ideals that shaped it from its founding: outstanding legal education, public service, and professional responsibility.

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