AgLaw advises farmers

Alex Marszalkowski started a business this year that combines two aspects of his work life. He’s a real estate attorney, employed by Paolino Properties in Providence. He’s also a farmer, part of a family that has run the 200-acre Adams Farm in Cumberland for four generations.

His new business, AgLaw Rhode Island, incorporated in January, provides legal assistance to farmers who need professional help in preserving their farmland as open space. So far, Marszalkowski has offered his assistance free of charge.

He started the business after he observed that many farmers, knowing he had a law degree, were calling him for advice. “On the farm, I say I’m a highly educated farmer,” he said.

Adams Farm grows pumpkins and hay. The family also owns 2,500 acres in Panton, Vt., where his uncle grows soybeans and corn. Over the years, Marszalkowski said, the family has had to deal with legal issues that include eminent domain and property encroachment.

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The town of Wrentham, Mass., tried to acquire a portion of the Cumberland farm for a town well site through eminent domain, he said. After he resisted, town officials eventually looked elsewhere.

Such experiences prompted him to try to help farmers who might not have the means to protect their land, or to preserve it through establishment of a trust. •

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