Animal Law Trial Advocacy

Summer course description is listed at the bottom of this page.

Animal Law Trial Advocacy - Professor Russ Mead

• Course Number: LAW-924
• Course Type: Highly Specialized and Experiential
• Credits: 2
• Enrollment Limit: Determined by the Registrar
• Description: Animal Law Trial Advocacy teaches trial skills and trial strategies in an animal law setting. This is a skills-based course where students practice courtroom presentation skills using animal law examples. The course embraces the concept that every personality type can be an effective courtroom advocate. The course ends with each student chairing a mock trial between a property owner and an industrial hog farm. Even if you never conduct a trial after graduation, this course will help you make legal arguments in a courtroom setting.
• Prerequisite: none
• Evaluation Method: Conduct a mock trial
• Capstone: No
• WIE: No

 

Animal Law Trial Advocacy - Senatori, M. Summer (2023, 2024)

For LLM and MSL Students ONLY

Employing the Canvas learning platform, this online course is delivered through an asynchronous online format. Featuring modules that open and close each week, this course affords students added flexibility when engaging with recorded lectures, readings, assignments, and one another and the course professor via discussion boards. Students will receive an email from the Animal Law Program Coordinator instructing them how to access the Canvas platform, which includes a Canvas orientation, and their course a few days before the course opens. Students who have not received instructions on how to access their Canvas platform 48 hours before the first day of class or those who register for the class within 48 hours of the first day of class should contact the Animal Law Program Coordinator, Danielle Lopez, at cals@lclark.edu to request access. To learn more about the course and evaluation method, review the description below.

• Course Number: LAW-924
• Course Type: Highly Specialized and Experiential
• Credits: 3
• Enrollment Limit: Determined by the Registrar
• Description: Whether you are a lawyer or non-lawyer, litigation is an important tool in animal advocacy. This course examines advocacy in the context of animal law trials, with a focus on the unique challenges that animal advocates face in the courts, in addition to providing an opportunity to develop practical skills. This online course is designed to address fundamentals while also being accessible to MSL students.
• Through real cases and hypothetical exercises, students will explore: when litigation is (and is not) advantageous; the psychology of persuasion (including implicit bias and species bias); proven tactics and innovative approaches to effectively telling the animal’s story; the anatomy of a trial and its key phases; the differences between lay and expert witnesses and between opening statements and closing arguments; business, practical, and ethical considerations that may arise in animal trial advocacy; and more. Students will also study the use of strategic litigation (i.e., litigation that is designed to foster social change beyond the case itself) in animal law. We will use a range of venues to examine these topics, including civil and criminal courts.
• A comprehensive understanding of the role of litigation in animal advocacy is important for advocates who may be involved in litigation as a trial attorney, client, a fact or expert witness, an amicus party (friend of the court), a nonprofit executive, or in some other capacity. Our analysis will begin before reaching the courthouse doors and will also extend to business and practical considerations involved in animal law litigation.
• This is an asynchronous online course and, accordingly, assignments will be structured within this framework. Any oral assignments will be pre-recorded and uploaded to Canvas.
• Prerequisite: none
• Evaluation Method: Discussion board posts; quizzes; multiple written and/or oral assignments (conducted asynchronously); and a final project
• Capstone: No
• WIE: No