2006: Market Revolution: Recognizing Animals’ Intrinsic Values

For information on future Animal Law Conference dates and locations, visit animallawconference.org.

The L&C SALDF and National Center for Animal Law are proud to host the 14th Annual Animal Law Conference MarketR evolution: Recognizing Animals’ Intrinsic Values at Lewis & Clark Law School on October 13-15, 2006.

Please join us to learn about animal law, meet leaders in the field, find out how to be an effective advocate for animals, and enjoy beautiful Portland, Oregon. 

Whether you are new to the movement or a seasoned veteran, you will benefit from attending the longest running national animal law conference.

14th Annual Animal Law Conference Schedule

Friday, October 13

Registration: 1:00-6:00

2:00-4:00

Room 1: Defending Whales, Dolphins and Ocean Fish
Sue Fisher, Andrew Hawley & Joel Reynolds

Room 8: Legal Developments for Animals and their Rescuers in Disasters
Barbara J. Gislason, Russ Mead, Drew Moore & Steven Wise

4:15-6:15
Room 1: Animal Law Developments in Australia & Canada
Katrina Sharman & Martine Lachance

Room 8: Preventing the Exploitation of Primates as Pets and for Profit
Sarah Baeckler & Nicole Paquette

Saturday, October 14

Registration: 8:30
Continental Breakfast

9:00-10:20
Room 7: Fighting Canned Hunts, Contest Kills, and Animal Fighting
Nancy Perry & Tanya Sanerib

Room 8: Animals in Research: Pet cloning, Patents, and Bioethics
Elizabeth DeCoux, Tracie Letterman & Art LaFrance

10:30-12:00
Room 7: Defending Activists and their Constitutional Rights: Wegman’s and SHAC Case Studies
Len Egert & Will Potter

Room 8: Estate Planning for Companion Animals
Eden Rose Brown

12:00-12:45 Lunch

12:45-1:45
In the amphitheater or student lounge weather permitting
Steven M. Wise: Why Trying to Obtain Fundamental Common Law Rights is Good for Nonhuman Animals and How it Can Be Accomplished

2:00-4:00
Room 7: Recognizing Companion Animals’ Intrinsic Values: Civil Damages and Criminal Actions
Scott Beckstead, Amy Breyer, Elizabeth DeCoux, & Adam Karp

Room 8: Causes of Action & Legislative Efforts for “Farmed Animals”
Carter Dillard, Nancy Perry & David J. Wolfson

4:15-6:00
Room 7: Protecting “Performing Animals”: Zoos, and Circuses Nicole Paquette & Tanya Sanerib

Room 8: Problems with Puppy Mills
Sara Amundson & Bruce Wagman

Banquet, Auction, Scholarship Award Ceremony, with Keynote Address by James B. Mason
6:00-9:00

Sunday, October 15

9:30-12:30
Room 7: Animal Law Curriculum: Resources, Support, and Developing Courses & Clinics
Laura Ireland Moore, Bruce Wagman, Steven Wise and David J. Wolfson

-Funding
-Gaining student and administrative support
-Marketing
-What and how to teach
-Networking
-and more!

1:00-4:00
Room 7: Successful Animal Lawyering
Scott Beckstead, Amy Breyer, Len Egert, Corey Evans, Adam Karp, and Geneva Page

-Solo or small practice
-Exclusively animal law or incorporating other areas of practice
-Screening clients
-Proactive lawyering
-Defensive lawyering
-Role as an activist
-How much to charge/recovering costs and fees
-Networking/marketing
-and more!

Animal Law Conference Speaker Biographies

Sara Amundson

Sara Amundson is the Executive Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, the 501(c)4 organization affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States. She was previously the Deputy and Legislative Director of the Doris Day Animal League where she directed local, state and federal legislation to protect wild horses and burros, prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption, require the use of non-animal, alternative tests, promote spaying and neutering, and require appropriate federal regulation of breeders. Sara primary area of expertise is in the use of animals for testing and, as such, she has been the principal lobbyist behind the acceptance of Corrositex® as the first federally approved non-animal, alternative test; passage of the ICCVAM Authorization Act; passage of the California alternatives law, the first federal appropriation for research, development and validation on non-animal, alternative tests and the first federal appropriations for research and development of non-animal, alternative methods and the first Congressional mandate for a five-year plan for implementation. She also had led DDAL’s legislative activity and litigation to require USDA to regulate breeders of dogs and cats sold directly to the public and breeders of hunting, breeding and security dogs.

Sarah Baeckler

Sarah Baeckler is a primatologist with degrees in primate behavior and anthropology whose research focuses on chimpanzee communication and cultures of captive management. After several years of working with captive chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries, Sarah spent 14 months undercover at a Hollywood animal training compound, where she witnessed and reported on institutionalized abuse of chimpanzees by the trainers. She spent five years working with the Chimpanzee Collaboratory on a campaign to end the use of great apes in entertainment, including both public education and legal initiatives. She is now a second year law student at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Scott Beckstead, Esq.

Scott has been a practicing lawyer since 1991. His practice is on the central Oregon coast in the small town of Waldport, where he also serves as the Mayor. Although his practice is varied and diverse, he also specializes in animal law. Scott advocates for animals in court and in the political arena. He has served as President of the Central Coast Humane Society and is a former director of Humane Oregon.

Eden Rose Brown, Esq.

Ms. Brown received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College. After her active duty tour as a United States Air Force Judge Advocate and Assistant, for which she was awarded the United States Meritorious Service Medal for her efforts during the Gulf War and the subsequent Philippine evacuation crisis, Ms. Brown moved back to Salem, Oregon to open her own estate planning firm. She is a co-author and -editor of “Giving ”“ Philanthropy for Everyone,” and is a frequent lecturer and contributing author on estate and charitable planning topics including estate planning for pets.

Amy A. Breyer, Esq.

Ms. Breyer received her BSBA, cum laude, from Boston University in 1986 and her JD from Northwestern University School of Law in 2000. In March 2002, she opened the first animal law practice in Illinois. Her caseload focuses primarily on litigation, including: veterinary malpractice, civil cruelty claims, condominium/zoning issues, dog bites, consumer fraud, contractual disputes, as well as various other torts and negligence. Ms. Breyer is an adjunct professor of animal law at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. She is the principal founder of the Animal Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association and also served two terms as the committee’s inaugural chair. She currently chairs the Chicago Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Practitioners Committee and serves on the Agricultural Law Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association. Ms. Breyer has spoken about various aspects of animal law around the country, including the Washington State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Yale University School of Law and the annual Animal Law Conference at Lewis & Clark Law School. Her practice also has been featured in the Chicago Tribune’s Sunday Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago’s newspaper for the legal profession, The Daily Law Bulletin, as well as the London Sunday Telegraph and China Standard.

Elizabeth L. DeCoux, JD

Elizabeth L. DeCoux is Assistant Professor of Law at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida, where she teaches Animals and the Law, along with Torts, Evidence and Insurance Law. After graduating magna cum laude from Mississippi College School of Law, she clerked for the Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. She spent several years in a civil litigation practice, both in a law firm setting and as in-house counsel for the largest underwriter of individual health insurance in the nation. She taught Animals and the Law At Indiana University School of Law, before teaching at Florida Coastal. Her scholarship focuses on evidence, and on the law’s treatment of non-human animals. She has served as Chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division Animal Protection Committee, and on the Board of Directors of both the FACE Spay/Neuter Clinic and the Indiana University GLBT Alumni Association.

Carter Dillard, Esq.

Carter worked as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and legal advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before serving as General Counsel of Compassion Over Killing, and finally in his current position as Director of Farm Animal Litigation at the The Humane Society of the United States. Carter is a graduate of Boston College and Emory School of Law.

Len Egert, Esq.

Len is a member of the law firm Egert and Trakinski which specializes in animal law in New York and New Jersey. The firm represents national and grassroots animal advocacy organizations as well as individual clients in a variety of matters. Prior to starting his own practice Len was a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, practiced labor law and served as counsel for the Writers Guild of America, East. He is currently a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals and serves on the Board of Directors of Compassion over Killing.

Sue Fisher, JD

Sue Fisher is the Policy Director of the US office of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and she is based in Portland, Oregon. Trained in the UK as an attorney, Sue has worked for animal protection organisations since 1994 and has lead WDCS’ hunting and wildlife trade programs since 1998. Sue has attended twelve IWC annual meetings and five meetings of the Parties to CITES as well as many technical intersessional meetings of both conventions. She has regularly served as a technical adviser on government delegations. Sue has extensive expertise in legal and campaign advocacy for dolphins captured for captive display and whales hunted for meat and their other valuable body parts. Sue also serves on the Board of the Species Survival Network, a coalition of over 80 NGOs worldwide working on wildlife trade issues.

Barbara J. Gislason, Esq.

Barbara J. Gislason is a practicing animal law attorney, adjunct professor, and founding Chair of the MSBA Animal Law Committee as well as the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Commmittee. After Hurricane Katrina, Gislason created and now directs the ABA-TIPS Animal Disaster Relief Network, and convened the ABA-TIPS Select Legal Panel on Emergency Management Regarding Animals. Recently, Gislason was appointed the ABA-TIPS Advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) regarding the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Healthcare Practitioners Act (UEVHPA).

Andrew Hawley, Esq.

Andrew is a Staff Attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation organization dedicated to the protection of wild animals and plants, and the ecosystems upon which they depend. At Defenders, Andrew employs various federal environmental statutes in litigation efforts designed to both promote the conservation of imperiled species, and prevent the alteration and destruction of such species habitat, in particular, focusing on the protection of the marine environment and its inhabitants. Andrew is currently involved in Defenders v. Gutierrez, in which Defenders, and others, have sued the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Coast Guard for failing to take the steps necessary to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from incidents of ship strikes. Andrew graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2003 and is a member of the California Bar.

Andrew N. Ireland Moore, JD

Drew Moore is a Disaster Field Responder with the Humane Society of the United States Disaster Services and a founding member of Oregon Humane Society Technical Animal Rescue (OHSTAR). He earned a degree in Wildlife Sciences from Oregon State University and JD, Certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law, with emphasizes in criminal and animal law, from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Adam Karp, Esq.

Mr. Karp exclusively practices animal law statewide from Bellingham, Washington. Having graduated from Gonzaga University with a BAHonors, and University of Washington with a JD and M.S. in statistics, this is Mr. Karp’s seventh year actively practicing law. He founded and served as first chair of the new Washington State Bar Association’s Animal Law Section for 2002-2003, and is currently chair for 2005-2006. He is also a vice-chair of the American Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee. In addition to serving his third year as editor of the Animal Welfare and Law Enforcement report, produced by Animal Legal Reports Services, he is a long term member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Further, he was graduated from the Washington Level One Animal Control Academy. He is also a member of the Washington Animal Control Association and National Animal Control Association.
He regularly writes for bar association bulletins on the topic of animal law and routinely speaks around the nation about animal law, including at Yale, Vanderbilt, and Vermont Law School. Occasionally he appears on television, radio, and most notably in TIME magazine. Mr. Karp is adjunct professor of animal law at the University of Washington School of Law and Seattle University School of Law.

Martine Lachance

Professor Lachance is a law teacher at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) law school. She is particularly interested in animal law in a comparative perspective. Besides her course « Animals and the Law in Quebec », she currently teaches courses in civil matters and international private law. She is the director of the International Research Group in Animal Law (IRGAL), a group she as recently created at UQAM. Professor Lachance is also a member of the editorial committee of the Private Law Dictionary/Dictionnaire de droit privé of the Quebec Research Centre for Private and Comparative Law attached to University McGill.

Art LaFrance

Professor LaFrance teaches Criminal Law and Procedure, Bioethics; Health Delivery Systems; and Poverty, Health, and The Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. He is also a faculty advisor to the Animal Law Review.

Tracie Letterman, JD

Tracie Letterman is the Executive Director of the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS). She has significant experience in public interest legal advocacy and grassroots campaigns relating to animal welfare, fish conservation, and consumer protection issues. Tracie is recognized as a leader before U.S regulatory agencies on animal welfare and environmental issues. Prior to AAVS, she was a staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety/International Center for Technology Assessment for eight years, directing the fish program and working with numerous animal protection groups on legal and regulatory issues involving the use of animals in research and education, zoos, and puppy mills.

Jim Mason, Esq.

Jim Mason is an author and attorney who focuses on human/animal concerns.

His book, An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature (Lantern Books, 2005), looks at the historical and cultural roots of the Western belief in God-given dominion over the living world. The book explains how dominionism has made a mess of our relations with animals, with nature, and with each other. In enslaving animals for war and farming, he says, agrarian society broke the ancient bonds and sense of kinship with them. This makes for an alienated, nature-hating culture, Mason argues. It fouls our relations with nature—especially animals, whom we need, he says, “as companions, as exercisers of human empathy and nurturing, as feeders and informers of the psyche, and as kin and continuum with the rest of the living world.”

Mason is best known for his 1980 book, Animal Factories, written with philosopher, Peter Singer. The book examined America’s brave new world of factory farming in which crowded, drugged animals mass-produce cheap meat, milk and eggs. In the process, Mason and Singer say, animal factories also mass-produce environmental pollution and threats to human health while they destroy independent, diversified farming.

Jim Mason’s writings have appeared in a wide variety of publications. He is a contributor to In Defence of Animals (Blackwell’s, 2005), edited by Peter Singer. His magazine article, “A Plague of Gypsy Moths” was chosen for the book, Cases for Composition (2nd edition; Little, Brown, 1984). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, New Scientist, Newsday, Country Journal, Orion Nature Quarterly, and other publications. His 1993 story in Audubon about the growing trade in exotic pets was nominated for the National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting. The article sparked national interest and was chosen for the anthology, Preserving Wildlife: An International Perspective (Prometheus Books, 2000). Mason and Peter Singer’s new book, The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, just released by Rodale (May, 2006).

In addition to writing, Jim Mason speaks about animals, nature and the environment at conferences, churches, and universities. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CBS This Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered, CNN, Midday Live, and other radio and television programs in major cities. His books have been reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, In These Times, The Chicago Sun Times, and The Atlanta Constitution.

Russ Mead, Esq.

Russ serves as General Counsel for Best Friends Animal Society, the nation’s largest no kill animal sanctuary. He received his JD from St. Louis University School of Law in 1990. Prior to that, he worked as a CPA and was also CEO of a large leasing company. He has an MBA and a BS degree in accounting from Arizona State University. He lives in Kanab, Utah with his wife, Laura, and, of course, their animals.

Nicole G. Paquette, Esq.

Nicole G. Paquette is the General Counsel and Director of Legal and Government Affairs for the Animal Protection Institute, in Sacramento, CA. In this capacity, she directs API’s litigation efforts and legislative efforts on the federal, state, and local levels; writes and introduces legislation; and lobbies Congress, State, and local governments on legislation affecting animals. Nicole is a recognized national expert on captive wild and exotic animal issues. She directs API’s campaigns on prohibiting the keeping of exotic animals as “pets” and the use of wild and exotic animals in circuses. Nicole has assisted several states and cities with introducing and passing laws relating to private possession and prohibiting the display of exotic animals. Prior to joining the Animal Protection Institute, Nicole was an associate attorney in a small civil litigation firm in Washington, DC. Nicole is a 1998 graduate of Vermont Law School. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with honors, in 1994 from San Francisco State University. She is a member of California, District of Columbia, and Massachusetts Bars.

Nancy Perry, JD

Nancy Perry is Vice President of Government Affairs for The Humane Society of the United States — the nation’s largest animal protection organization. On behalf of The HSUS, Ms. Perry organizes legislative, administrative, grassroots, and media efforts to protect animals at the state, federal, and local level; oversees statewide campaigns to enact citizen initiatives and referenda to protect animals; and supervises grassroots organization and fundraising efforts throughout the country. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School, where she founded the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Law Review (the nation’s first animal law review), and the annual Animal Law conference. Ms. Perry teaches the Animal and Wildlife Law Seminar at George Washington University Law School, and a summer intensive seminar entitled Animal Law: Legislation, Lobbying and Litigation at Lewis & Clark Law School. She currently serves as a national advisor for the National Center for Animal Law and to the Animal Law Review.

Will Potter

Will Potter is an award-winning reporter who focuses on how lawmakers and corporations have labeled animal rights and environmental activists as “eco-terrorists.” Will has written for publications including The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News and Legal Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress about his reporting. He is the creator of GreenIsTheNewRed.com, where he blogs about the Green Scare and history repeating itself.

Joel Reynolds, Esq.

Joel Reynolds joined the staff of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Los Angeles office as a Senior Attorney in 1990. He currently specializes in issues of coastal protection, land use, marine mammal protection, environmental justice, and transportation. Joel is Co-Director of NRDC’s Urban Program and director of the Marine Mammal Protection and Southern California Ecosystem projects.

As an expert on marine mammals, Joel regularly speaks to conventions and groups across the country on marine mammal protection. He has contributed opinion pieces to The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and is quoted frequently on marine mammal issues by publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also widely quoted on issues about environmental justice, and has appeared on the Bill Rosendahl Show, Lawson Live, and Life and Times.

Tanya Sanerib, Esq.

Tanya is an Associate Attorney at Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, a public interest law firm in Washington D.C. The firm specializes in federal and state litigation on a wide range of public interest issues, including: Wildlife and Animal Protection; Environment and Safe Energy; Open Government Laws; Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties; Human Health and Safety Issues; and Ballot Initiatives and Referenda. Tanya joined Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal in 2002 after graduating from Lewis & Clark Law School. Tanya has worked on a wide array of cases and projects at the firm, including those aimed at preventing the use of animals in entertainment. Among these are federal cases to halt the importation of wild elephants into the U.S. for public display; a federal lawsuit to halt the transfer of four Hawthorn elephants to Carson & Barnes Circus’ Endangered Ark Foundation; and ASPCA v. Ringling Brothers, a federal lawsuit against Ringling Brothers Circus for the “take” of endangered Asian elephants under the ESA. Tanya also represented The Fund for Animals at the 13th meeting of the Parties to CITES. Tanya is a member of the Oregon and District of Columbia Bars.

Katrina Sharman

Katrina is the corporate counsel for Voiceless, the fund for animals in Australia. Voiceless is a non profit organisation founded by the Sherman Family in 2004 which is working to promote respect and compassion for animals, increase awareness of the conditions in which they live and take action to protect animals from suffering. Katrina is a former Senior Associate at Minter Ellison Lawyers and a current Councillor of NSW Young Lawyers Executive Council. She chaired NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee which was the first group of Australian lawyers to speak out about animal law issues, for more than five years. Katrina is a former member of the Animal Research Review Panel (NSW) and the National Health & Medical Research Council, Animal Welfare Committee.

Amy Trakinski, Esq.

Amy is a member of Egert and Trakinski, an animal law practice in New York City specializing in state and federal litigation. Founded in 1998, the firm has represented numerous national and grassroots animal rights and animal protection organizations as well as individual clients. Prior to starting her own practice, Amy was a law clerk for the Honorable Jose L. Fuentes, Superior Court of New Jersey and practiced civil litigation focusing in the areas of constitutional and employment law. Amy is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals and serves on the boards of directors of the Animal Welfare Trust and Compassion Over Killing.

Bruce Wagman, Esq.

Bruce Wagman is a partner with Morgenstein & Jubelirer in San Francisco and concentrates his practice in animal law and products liability defense, as well as employment, labor litigation, and appeals. He is an adjunct professor of animal law at Hastings College of the Law, Boalt Hall, Stanford Law School and the University of San Francisco School of Law. Mr. Wagman is the co-author of the Animal Law Textbook, and Chief Outside Counsel for the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Steven M. Wise, Esq.

Steve Wise has practiced animal protection law for 25 years and taught “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard, Vermont, John Marshall, and Vermont Law Schools. He is the author of Rattling the Cage - Toward Legal Rights for Animals, Drawing the Line - Science and the Case for Animal Rights, and Though the Heavens May Fall - The Landmark Trial that Led to the End of Human Slavery. He is also the president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights.

David J. Wolfson, Esq.

David J. Wolfson is a partner in the Global Corporate group at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. He represents a number of animal protection groups and has written extensively on animal protection law. He has taught animal law at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School and Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, and is currently teaching animal law at Columbia Law School and NYU Law School. He is the author of a number of articles and a co-author of “Foxes in the Henhouse: Animals, Agribusiness and the Law” in Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004).