This webinar series will provide valuable insights on the changing legal and legislative landscape.
About this Event

Post Election Strategy and Response: This webinar series will provide valuable insights on the changing legal and legislative landscape, focusing on how these changes could impact the work of animal and environmental lawyers in the U.S., and internationally. The discussion will pinpoint potential problems and discuss tactical strategies for dealing with legal and political roadblocks, providing attorneys and advocates with tools to move forward, and inspiration for novel ways to make positive changes for humans, animals and our shared environment.

In the first webinar, Kathy Hessler, Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School, and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI) will recap actions taken by the 2016 administration and consider what might be coming next. The presentation will be followed by informal breakout rooms where participants can share concerns and brainstorm about potential collaborations.

Speaker: Kathy Hessler, GW Law

Moderator: Jamie McLaughlin, UIA Animal Law Commission

Kathy Hessler is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School (GWU), and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI), working with Joan Schaffner and Iselin Gambert, in a program made possible by generous support from ALDF. Dean Hessler has been a clinical law professor for 30 years and has been teaching animal law for 22 years. She is the first law professor hired to teach animal law full-time. She received her JD from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary and her LLM from Georgetown University Law Center. Dean Hessler helped develop the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School (L&C). For fourteen years she taught there and directed the Animal Law Clinic, which was named one of the top fifteen most innovative clinics in 2015. She also created and directed the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and is the co-founder of World Aquatic Animal Day along with Amy P. Wilson.

Jamie McLaughlin is an associate staff attorney with the Nonhuman Rights Project. She received her J.D. with a Certificate in Public Interest Law from DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, Illinois. Jamie received her animal law LL.M. and her environmental law LL.M. cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She has a background in finance and holds a Certified Financial Planner designation. Jamie is a former financial planning franchise owner, and served Silicon Valley professionals for over 17 years before transitioning to animal law. She has worked with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Humane Society of the United States. Jamie is Vice President of the UIA Animal Law Commission and the Programming Vice Chair for the ABA International Animal Law Committee.