About Cari

Cari Rincker is the owner of Rincker Law, PLLC, a national general practice law firm concentrating in food and agriculture law with offices, whose primary office is in Shelbyville, Illinois. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, Kentucky and Washington D.C. She manages a growing team with a national presence with satellite offices in Champaign, Manhattan, Stamford, Austin, and Louisville.

She is a prolific writer and blogger on a myriad of food, farm and family law topics and has been recognized as an author of a Top 100 Blawg from the American Bar Association. She co-authored a book with Pat Dillon titled FIELD MANUAL: LEGAL GUIDE FOR NEW YORK FARMERS & FOOD ENTREPRENEURS along with FAMILY LAW ISSUES IN AGRICULTURE. She is the Past-Chair of the American Bar Association’s General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division’s Agriculture Law Committee. On the family and matrimonial side, she was the editor of ONWARD AND UPWARD: GUIDE FOR GETTING THROUGH NEW YORK DIVORCE AND FAMILY LAW ISSUES.

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Cari is a nationally recognized food, farm and family attorney. She is currently an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School teaching several online agriculture, food law and environmental law courses and a past adjunct for the University of Illinois, School of Law where she taught mediation for five years. She too is a past adjunct professor at New York University, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies teaching an undergraduate food law course. Cari is a lifelong learner and recently completed the Leadership and Management Certificate Program at Wharton Online at the University of Pennsylvania.

Before starting Rincker Law, PLLC, Cari was an associate at Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC in Cheyenne, Wyoming where her broad practice areas ranged from agriculture, environmental and natural resource issues to federal lands, wind energy development, crop insurance, property law, commercial law, and probate with clients located all over the west.

Cari has developed a strong love for her skillful work as a family and matrimonial attorney. She is a trained mediator for divorces and child custody and visitation disputes. Cari is passionate about alternative dispute resolution with family and matrimonial cases, especially when children are involved, and aims to build stronger families–not tear them apart. Cari does a significant amount of work in Family Court litigating child custody and visitation, child/spousal support, and family offense petitions/orders of protection. She too handles both contested and uncontested divorces. Cari is a careful draftsman of pre – and post – nuptial agreements.

Cari is a past-member of the matrimonial law committee for the Association of the Bar for the City of New York and the family law section for the New York State Bar Association. She is also a volunteer mediator with the New York Peace Institute in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In Illinois, Cari followed her passion to her home state to help families mend from divorce and separation and was recently appointed to the roster of family law mediators for the Sixth, Fifth and Fourth Circuits.

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Cari’s passion for agriculture issues is deeply rooted. She grew up on a seedstock Simmental cattle operation in Shelbyville, Illinois where she spent significant time working on her family’s farm. She showed cattle through 4-H and FFA at both the local and national levels and was involved with the American Junior Simmental Association.

Cari went on to attend Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois where she received her Associate’s in Agriculture Science and had a successful career on its livestock judging team including being selected as First Place in Oral Reasons at the National Western Livestock Show and First Place Overall at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Cari then transferred to Texas A & M University where she received her Bachelor’s of Science in Animal Science and was a member of both the Livestock and Meat Animal Evaluation (“Askarben”) judging teams. She was selected as a member of the All-American Livestock Judging Team and was actively involved with the Saddle & Sirloin Club and Texas Aggie Cattlewomen. At Texas A & M University, Cari was selected to participate in the Congressional Agriculture and Natural Resource Policy Internship Program through the College of Agriculture. It is here that Cari received her first glimpse into agriculture law and policy during her summer working for Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX).


Due to her passion for law and policy, Cari decided to complete her Juris Doctor from Pace University, School of Law, in White Plains, New York. At Pace, Cari completed certificates in both Environmental Law and International Law and was a Vice-Chair on the National Environmental Moot Court Competition Board. While in law school, Cari worked at SimmonsCooper, LLC in their international litigation division and completed a consultantcy with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations where she conducted research on national legal frameworks on the conservation of livestock biodiversity and was a contributing author to The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Furthermore, while at Pace, Cari participated in Yale University’s School of Forestry’s Environmental Diplomacy program where she worked as an advisor for the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations, sat the floor of the General Assembly and gave policy recommendations to Ambassador Capelle. In addition to these experiences, Cari interned with Homelessness Prevention Unit for the Los Angeles Public Counsel, the largest pro bono clinic in the world.

Cari continues to have her boots planted firmly in agriculture and enjoys judging livestock shows and taking pictures of the livestock industry and rural life. Cari owns a small farm outside of her hometown of Shelbyville with chickens, goats and cattle along with her dog, Kennedy, and her son’s cat, Tess. Cari also enjoys livestock judging, travel, blogging for Discover Illinois, and podcasting for The Billable Mom. Cari is a mother of two and enjoys writing children books in her free time.