They Need a Good Lawyer

Yesterday afternoon, I sat in on a packed room of law students listening to presentations on what they should be doing and thinking about in order to fulfill their dream of working in animal law. There was discussion of opportunities working for not-for-profits (and how to manage your student loans if you do so), the prospects of working as a prosecutor and  taking on the animal abuse cases that come into your office, the absolute importance of studying administrative law, no matter how tedious that may sound (hey, it’s law school), and, of course, from me, how absolutely convinced I am that animal ag is going down, and it’s lawyers who are going to take it out (while making a whole bunch of money doing it).
It’s pretty exciting being here at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark and seeing how clear-eyed the upcoming generation is about factory farming, and other forms of animal abuse, and how eager they are to spend their careers fighting it. And it’s exciting to hear that there are already more and more jobs opening up for them. The Animal Legal Defense Fund just announced that it is looking for one one-year Litigation Fellow to begin immediately and several more two-year Fellows to start next Fall (3d year law students are welcome to apply). The ASPCA is looking for a Legal Advocacy Counsel. HSUS is looking for a Federal Legislative Specialist. The list goes on.
While things seem to be getting so much worse for animals everywhere, at the same time, the possibilities of using the law to address some of those harms are starting to really open up. With a little creativity and a definite willingness to swim outside the mainstream, this new generation is clearly poised to make big progress.