Announcing the 2025 Animal Law Leadership Award Winners

The Animal Leadership Award is given to Lewis & Clark Law graduating students who have demonstrated leadership in the animal law field and have earned the respect of peers, faculty, and staff for advancing animal law and education. The award is given annually, when merited, by the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) to one or more JD students, based upon nominations from faculty and staff in the Animal Law Program.

The recipients of this year’s Animal Law Leadership Award are: Mei Brunson ’25 and Suzannah Smith ’25. One of their nominators had the following to say about Mei and Suzannah: “I enthusiastically nominate Mei Brunson and Suzannah Smith to be honored for their leadership of the Lewis & Clark Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter this academic year. Their tenacity, professionalism, and leadership skills were nothing short of remarkable. They hosted an impressive number of animal law events and, throughout it all, they were collaborative, responsive and timely in their planning and engagement. They set a fantastic example for the law school community. My heartfelt congratulations to them for their leadership.”

Learn about Mei and Suzannah, their leadership skills, and their plans following graduation from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Mei Brunson

Mei is graduating with the Animal Law Certificate. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, during which she concentrated on critical animal studies, volunteered with the Food Empowerment Project, and led the UW Campus Animal Rights Educators. After spending a few years living and working in Olympia, Seattle, and Tokyo, she applied to law school with a clear focus on animal law and advocacy.

During law school, Mei interned with Animal Partisan, the Center for Animal Law Studies, Earthjustice, Farm Sanctuary, Food & Water Watch, and Humane World for Animals. She also served as submissions editor for Animal Law Review, co-directed the Lewis & Clark Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter, and worked as Professor Robert H. Klonoff’s Student Success Fellow. Her paper, Blue Blood Money: Draining Horseshoe Crabs for Profit, was awarded second place in the 2024 student writing competition hosted by the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Animals and the Law and was published in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. She additionally presented her research on the biomedical use of horseshoe crab blood at the 2025 Harms and Freedoms Conference, as part of its annual World Aquatic Animal Day Panel.

Of the honor, Mei says: “I am immensely grateful for the support offered by Lewis & Clark’s robust animal law community, from both my fellow students and faculty members. Their support carried me through the trials and tribulations of law school, and it infused great meaning into my experience. I am happy to be staying in Portland for the foreseeable future and remaining a part of this special community sharing my passion for animal law.”

In August 2025, Mei will begin a two-year clerkship with the Honorable Judge Kristina Hellman on the Oregon Court of Appeals. In the meantime, Mei will be studying for the bar, revising a paper related to New York’s humane education law, and reveling in post-law school life. In her future career as a practicing attorney, she aims to leverage litigation to advance animal, food, and environmental justice.

Suzannah Smith

Suzannah is graduating with both the Animal Law Certificate and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Certificate. A granddaughter of small family farmers, Suzannah is deeply committed to using litigation to hold industrial agriculture accountable for the harm it causes to humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment. She plans to devote her career to helping build a truly just and sustainable food system.

Suzannah completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied Political Science and Food Systems. During her time at Berkeley, she served as President of the Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocacy and worked on environmental and animal rights legislation through California Public Interest Research Group, the UC Green New Deal Coalition, and Compassionate Bay.

At Lewis & Clark, Suzannah served as Editor in Chief of Animal Law Review, the nation’s longest-running law journal focused on animal law. As the journal’s former Symposium Editor, she organized a conference centered on litigation strategies against concentrated animal feeding operations. She also served as Co-Director of the Lewis & Clark chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Suzannah has interned with Animal Defense Partnership, Earthrise Law Center, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Earthjustice. She was Professor Janet Steverson’s Student Success Fellow and also served as a Law Scholars for Change Law Clerk, co-authoring A Comparative Analysis of Farmed Animal Protection Laws in the European Union and the United States with Professor Joyce Tischler. In addition, she contributed to the forthcoming Industrial Animal Agriculture Law Casebook, co-authored by Tischler, Sonia Waisman, Cristina Stella, and Bruce Myers.

Of the honor, Suzannah says: “I am deeply honored to receive the Animal Law Leadership Award. The animal law community has profoundly shaped my time at Lewis & Clark—not only by providing the tools to challenge industrial agriculture, but also by offering constant support and inspiration. I feel incredibly fortunate to have attended a law school with such a strong public interest mission. Each day, I’ve been inspired by the passion of my peers and professors and by their unwavering commitment to creating meaningful change in the world. I look forward to staying connected with this remarkable community after graduation.”

Suzannah is overjoyed to begin a litigation fellowship at the Center for Food Safety in the fall and spend two more years in beautiful Portland.

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law advocates and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter. In addition to JD study, CALS offers an advanced degree program in-person and online. CALS’ Alumni-in-Action from more than 30 countries are making a difference for animals around the world. CALS is a self-funded Center within the law school operating under the Lewis & Clark College 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.