Create A More Compassionate World for Animals: The Animal Law Legacy Program

The Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School has launched the Animal Law Legacy Program—an opportunity for charitable giving designed to sustain the future of our work educating the next generation of lawyers to advance animal protection across the globe.

What Is Legacy Giving?

Legacy giving is about planning now to create a world we may personally never see, but one that we carefully build for the future. At the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS), we envision a future where animals are recognized as sentient beings and their interests are respected in legal systems around the world. It’s a world where animals are not exploited and they live their lives in peace. But, we not only envision this world, we’re dedicated to creating it. That’s why CALS is the leader in the field of animal law, with the most comprehensive animal law curriculum offered anywhere, the only program that offers an advanced legal degree in Animal Law and three specialty Animal Law Clinics. We have trained over 50 attorneys from more than 20 countries through our Animal Law LLM Program. Our Animal Law LLM Alumni In Action are doing transformational work on behalf of animals across the globe and in an array of areas, including: wildlife poaching and trade, farmed animal protection, animal law training and education, companion animal issues, animal protection outreach, and more.

Through the Animal Law Legacy Program, animal lovers can amplify the voices of animals, by educating and training attorneys to advocate for them and advance animal protection through the law. The most common way to provide a legacy gift is through estate planning, such as by providing a bequest to CALS in a will or trust. Other ways to give include: beneficiary designations (involving all or part of life insurance, IRA, etc.), gifts from an IRA, gifts from a Donor-Advised Fund, or gifts of appreciated stock. Quite simply, legacy giving for animal protection can help change their world.

Creating A More Compassionate World For Animals

The Animal Law Legacy Program is inspired by Professor of Practice Joyce Tischler—a pioneer in the field of animal law and affectionately known as “the Mother of Animal Law.” Joyce helped found and build the field of animal law starting in the 1970s, and has been a trailblazer ever since. Having spent over 40 years practicing animal law, Joyce joined CALS in 2019 as a Professor of Practice. She says that “now, my greatest legacy is teaching students to carry on the work that I started.” And, what a difference these students are making for animals.

What can educating and training one lawyer mean for animals? Animal Law LLM (’16) Alumni, Jim Karani, provides a perfect example. In Jim’s home country of Kenya, poachers are decimating iconic species like elephants. After receiving a scholarship to study at CALS and receiving his Animal Law LLM, Jim returned to Kenya, where he has trained over 300 judges, over 400 prosecutors, and hundreds of rangers and investigators on the best practices of handling wildlife crime cases. Lawyers like Jim are making transformational change for animals around the globe, as Jim explains:

“By changing policy and by being in the courts, I can with the stroke of a pen, help more animals than I can physically with my own hands on the ground.”

Animals need our help, because their interests are all too often ignored as they are exploited for even the most trivial reasons. As Joyce explains in an interview with CALS Executive Director, Pamela Hart:

“What most people don’t realize is that farmed animals are the most numerous class of animals on the planet—70 billion worldwide, 9 billion just in the US—and they live and die in a state of persistent suffering. That’s a huge thing to try to change. What I dream of in the future is that the interests of animals are recognized. Animals feel pain, they feel joy, they grieve when members of their families and communities die. We must begin to bring them into the community of compassion and see them as beings whose interests matter.”

Through legacy giving, donors can help us ensure that the interests of animals are considered and respected in legal systems around the world. Learn more about CALS Animal Law Legacy Program or email CALSLegacyProgram@lclark.edu.

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law attorneys and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter, with the most comprehensive animal law curriculum offered anywhere. In addition, CALS is the only program that offers an advanced legal degree in animal law and three specialty Animal Law Clinics. CALS is a nonprofit organization and is only able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.