ABOUT JEREMIAH P. COSGROVE

Jerry Cosgrove is of counsel to the Agricultural Services and the Commercial Real Estate and Land Use practice groups at Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough, P.C.

Jerry brings a farming background, legal experience, and a long history of nonprofit work and public service. Along with being of counsel to the firm, he is a Senior Advisor with American Farmland Trust; is affiliated with Ag-Visory, LLC; and is a consultant on a range of agricultural, conservation, farm transfer, and rural development issues. Jerry is able to assist both individuals and organizations in working through challenging farm transfer and farmland conservation issues by bringing a creative, problem-solving-oriented approach to every situation.

Jerry served as the Associate Director of the Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation from 2012 to 2015, launching LEP’s Hudson Valley Farm Hub initiative, a 1,200-acre teaching, research, and demonstration farm as well as overseeing its Food Hubs initiative focused on value chain development and developing its farm access programming to address the widening farm affordability gap.

He was a deputy commissioner for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets from 2007 to 2010, with program responsibility for food policy, food safety, dairy, and agricultural protection and development. He worked for almost 15 years at American Farmland Trust, a national farmland conservation nonprofit where he directed AFT’s policy development, technical assistance, and advocacy activities in New York and New England as its Northeast Director. He served on a number of state and regional advisory committees, including the NYS Advisory Council on Agriculture, the CoBank Northeast Regional Council, the Cornell Agriculture and Life Sciences Advisory Committee, and Senator Hillary Clinton’s Agricultural Advisory Council.

He began his legal career in Syracuse as an associate attorney at Bond, Schoeneck and King from 1988 to 1992.

Cosgrove has written a number of publications including Your Land is Your Legacy, An Estate Planning Guide for Farmers and Ranchers; Agricultural Economic Development for the Hudson Valley; and Drafting Conservation Easements for Agriculture.

He grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Clinton, New York. He is part of a fourth-generation farm family, a farm which his brother, Mike, owns and operates. Jerry graduated from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a degree in agriculture. He also graduated from Cornell Law School and is licensed to practice law in New York.

PRACTICE GROUPS

● Agricultural Services

● Commercial Real Estate and Land Use

EDUCATION

● Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

● Cornell Law School