Vogel tells the remarkable story of her improbable legal victory against the federal government ... Anyone seeking a dispassionate history of the case should look elsewhere. This is an advocate’s tale of fighting callous bureaucrats and cold-hearted prosecutors, while struggling to keep the lights on in her own home ... Vogel went on to serve as North Dakota’s agriculture commissioner, the first woman elected to the office in any state. This book is a testament to what was an even greater achievement.
Vogel is a gifted writer, weaving history, politics and vivid descriptions of the people and landscape with personal challenges like her financial turmoil as a single mother in a male-dominated field. Both in court and in this book, Vogel is able to bring the farmers she works with fully to life, including the devastating heartbreaks they experience ... Great for fans of legal dramas, Sarah Vogel's The Farmer's Lawyer will leave readers inspired as she details their fight for truth, justice and family farms in the 1980s.
Vogel spins an engaging, suspenseful, and often heartbreaking account of her bumbling performances as an untested trial lawyer ... Vogel is a good storyteller, and this stirring account is testimony to her continuing work as a strong advocate for America’s farmers.
Feisty ... [An] appalling story ... Her travails as a single mom, falling hopelessly behind on her own bills, add a vivid subplot. The result is an engrossing legal saga and a rousing tribute to prairie populism.
Though this memoir lacks the literary flair of books like Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action, it’s a brave attorney’s clear and thorough story of the power of collective legal action that belongs in every law library ... A well-documented eyewitness account of egregious injustices to family farmers.
