Noted animal law attorney, scholar, and professor Delcianna (Delci) Winders will join the Lewis & Clark Law School Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) as its newest assistant clinical professor in summer 2019.
Winders will lead the newly formed animal law litigation clinic focused on the legal protections and rights of farmed animals. This is the nation’s first-ever clinic focused exclusively on animal law litigation, and with its creation, Lewis & Clark Law School becomes the first law school in the world to host two separate clinics devoted to animal law. (The existing animal law clinic, founded in 2008, focuses on policy.)
“Delci is an extraordinary advocate with a proven track record of successfully litigating cases to improve the welfare and rights of animals,” said Associate Dean and CALS’ Executive Director Pamela Frasch. “We look forward to her bringing that creativity and energy to Lewis & Clark Law School and our students as she continues to fight for animals.”
Professor Winders has practiced animal law for more than a decade in a variety of settings and has taught the subject for nearly as long. As Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at the PETA Foundation, Professor Winders led a team of lawyers, veterinarians, and scientists to successfully transfer over a hundred individual animals from appalling conditions to reputable sanctuaries.
Professor Winders originated the legal theory underpinning the recently filed first-ever lawsuit brought by a horse and also developed and brought litigation that successfully ended the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decades-long policy of secretly and illegally issuing Endangered Species Act permits to roadside zoos and circuses.
Before her work for the PETA Foundation, Professor Winders served as the Director of Legal Campaigns for Farm Sanctuary, where she developed and led that organization’s legal advocacy efforts. One such effort, a petition for rulemaking on behalf of injured and sick goats, pigs, and sheep at slaughterhouses, was a collaboration with the Lewis & Clark Animal Law (policy-focused) Clinic. She was also involved in ballot initiatives to end intensive confinement systems for farmed animals, and was part of a coalition amicus brief in a Supreme Court case involving the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Prior to that, Winders practiced animal law as an associate at Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, which was named the “most effective public-interest law firm” by The Washingtonian.
Professor Winders has published animal law scholarship in top-50 law review journals as well as opinion pieces in National Geographic, Newsweek, New York Daily News, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and numerous other media outlets. Fittingly, she was featured in O Magazine as one of “Six Women Who Dare.”
Professor Winders recently completed a Visiting Scholar position at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, was Harvard’s first-ever Animal Law & Policy fellow, and previously taught animal law at Tulane University School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
* * *
About the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School
Lewis & Clark Law School has been the vanguard of animal law for more than a quarter century. Over a decade ago, the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was launched at the law school. CALS offers the most extensive animal law curriculum in the world, with over 25 individual courses in animal law, as well as an Animal Law Certificate and the world’s first and only master of laws (LLM) in Animal Law, which is designed for US and international law school graduates.
In addition, CALS is home to the first legal journal devoted exclusively to animal law (Animal Law Review), the first student animal law organization (L&C SALDF), the world’s longest-running Animal Law Conference, and the world’s first and only Dean of Animal Law.
Notably, Lewis & Clark Law School also launched a groundbreaking animal law (policy-focused) clinic in 2008, at a time when no other animal law clinics existed.
