Animal Law Evolves

By Bobbie Hasselbring,
Lewis & Clark School Advocate, Fall ‘08

New funding, new programs, new faculty, and a larger staff take Lewis & Clark Law School’s nationally recognized Animal Law Program to the next level. 

“Helmsley leaves $12 million to dog.”

“Local woman accused of hoarding animals.”

“Tainted pet food results in hundreds of deaths and dozens of lawsuits.”

“Athlete charged in dog fighting.”

“Divorcing couple in pet custody battle.”

These and dozens of other headlines tell the story: Animal law is one of the fastest-growing areas in the legal profession today. And Lewis & Clark Law School, long a leader in the field of animal law, has launched bold new initiatives to make its new Center for Animal Law Studies the top program in the country.

With the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the oldest nonprofit animal law organization in the country, Lewis & Clark Law School is poised to dramatically expand and develop its Animal Law Program. This move not only creates the sole comprehensive animal law program in the nation, but also will have a profound effect on the evolution of animal protection laws and of animal law as a field.

“The collaboration with ALDF is about synergy,” says Lewis & Clark Law School Dean Bob Klonoff. “I’m very proud of having this well-regarded organization working with us. ALDF brings expertise, skill, stature, and a value system that is going to enhance the Law School and the field of animal law.”

Pamela Alexander, director of the Animal Law Program of ALDF, is equally excited about this first-of-its-kind collaboration.“This partnership will allow Lewis & Clark to develop a world-class, groundbreaking animal law program,“ says Alexander, “and make the Center for Animal Law Studies a really exceptional choice for law students and scholars to study and develop the field of animal law. We envision bringing together top minds in the growing community of professionals and students in animal law.”

A Long Tradition in Animal Law

For the past 16 years, Lewis & Clark has been at the forefront of this emerging legal field. The school was the first to have a student chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF), one of the first to offer an animal law course, the first to publish an animal law journal, the first to convene an annual international conference on animal law, the first to develop an animal law clinic, with full-time faculty, the first to create an animal law moot court, and the first to create a national animal law center.

“You won’t find any other school that has the breadth or depth of animal law activity both locally and nationally,” says Professor of Law Bill Funk, an early supporter of the Animal Law Program.“We’ve been the school most involved in animal law before this new growth and we’re certainly going to be the biggest one after this growth.”

The steady expansion of Lewis & Clark’s Animal Law Program over the years has followed the progression in people’s attitudes about animals. “Many years ago when we first got involved in animal law, no one really knew what it was,” says Janice Weis, associate dean and director of the Environmental Law and Natural Resources Program at Lewis & Clark. “It sounded marginal, controversial. But that’s changed as people’s perception of animals has changed. Now, we let animals sleep on our beds; we bring them on vacations. People relate to legal efforts to protect animals and they no longer have giggles about animal law. It’s a legitimate legal field of study.”

New Energy

The new association with ALDF enables Lewis & Clark to be the first law school in the country to offer an animal law program with a full-time executive director, a full-time clinical professor, and a full-time program assistant. “At Lewis & Clark, you’re going to get the best animal law education available anywhere in the world,” says executive director Pamela Frasch, who will lead the program’s expansion. “You’re going to be challenged and you’re going to come out thinking differently and be ready to change the world.”

The increased staffing will allow the school to expand its course offerings, and may in the future make it possible for Lewis & Clark to offer a certificate in animal law and/or an LL.M. degree. “The Animal Law Program is nested in our nationally recognized Environmental Law Program,” explains Associate Dean Weis. “Currently, you can earn an environmental law certificate or an environmental law certificate with a specialty in animal law. It’s only one step away from being able to earn a certificate in animal law or an LL.M. degree in animal law.”

Increasingly, the emphasis of the program is on scholarship. The new executive director, Pamela Frasch, formerly general counsel for the Animal Legal Defense Fund in Portland and a Lewis & Clark Law School adjunct professor for the past 10 years, is the coauthor of the subject’s premier casebook, Animal Law: Cases and Materials. One of her duties will be to expand and develop animal law course offerings.

“Pam will be teaching our mainline animal law course. Not only has she done a lot of litigating, she’s also a scholar in her own right,” says Lewis & Clark Law Professor Michael Blumm, another early supporter of the Animal Law Program and the first Animal Law Review advisor. “She’s the right person to lead the program and ensure that students who come here for animal law get all the exposure they can.”

The Animal Law Clinic will be taught by an internationally recognized clinical expert. “Kathy Hessler will lead the clinic, which is a big deal,” says Professor Funk. “She’ll be teaching full-time at the clinic, which is different for us, and she’s not just any full-time person. She’s also an experienced professor from Case Western University.”

Hessler plans to focus the clinic’s efforts on national cases that have the potential to shape laws affecting animals.“This is the only animal law clinic of its kind in the country,” says Hessler. “We don’t want to squander the opportunity. We want to have far-reaching impact.”

One of the goals of the expanded program is to hire a top scholar in animal law. “We’re looking to endow a chair in animal law,” says Dean Klonoff. “No law school has a high-level, nationally recognized scholar with an endowed chair in this field. It would put that person and the Law School at the forefront of national scholarship in animal law.”

Two things that won’t change in the Animal Law Program: rigorous legal preparation and an openness to differing perspectives. “We work really hard to educate our students to be lawyers rather than activists,” says Associate Dean Weis. “While students may feel passionately about animals, while they may choose to be vegan as a life philosophy, we educate them that something has to be illegal to have a foot in the legal world.

“In addition, we make sure all the sides are brought up in the classroom. We try to explore all the perspectives, not just the one most students agree with. If you don’t have practice listening to a diversity of perspectives and articulating your views with people who feel differently than you do, you’re ill prepared to be a good lawyer.”

Geordie Duckler ’87, a Portland attorney who practices animal law exclusively, says that characteristic openness was something he appreciated when he attended Lewis & Clark and it serves him well in his practice. “At Lewis & Clark, there is a feeling that all questions are appropriate to ask and think about and ponder,” he says. “You can raise a point that’s outside of the norm and you won’t be rebuffed. In fact, it’ll be thoroughly explored.”

Law student Alexis Curry Fox ’09came to Lewis & Clark because of the school’s animal law offerings and has participated in SALDF, the Animal Law Review, the Animal Law Conference, and the Moot Court Competition. She also took second place in the Animal Law Closing Argument competition at Harvard. Currently, Fox is in an externship program with Nancy Perry ’95 at the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C. She says she’s excited that the program is growing. “My decision to go to Lewis & Clark was based on the Animal Law Program’s excellent reputation,” says Curry Fox. “I’m thrilled our program is growing. If you are interested in animal law, try to get into Lewis & Clark. Not only will you receive an incredible, unique education in animal law, you will also learn from leaders in the field.”

This article first appeared in the Fall 2008 edition of the Lewis & Clark Law School Advocate