Congratulations to the 2024 Student Chapters of the Year!

Congratulations to the Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter members at the University of Colorado Law School and the University of Texas School of Law for winning the 2024 Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter of the Year Awards!

Student chapters are recognized student organizations at law schools across the U.S. and affiliated with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Each student chapter is supported through Animal Legal Defense Fund grants to hold events on campus and attend animal law conferences and events. Each student chapter is supported and empowered to engage in local, state, and federal legislation, collaborate with local organizations on related issues, and offered special access to Animal Legal Defense Fund staff.

This year the University of Colorado Law School won the Chapter of the Year Award for the second year in a row! This past school year, the Colorado Law Chapter continued their dedication to public service, working with three animal advocacy legal non-profits to create volunteer opportunities for Colorado University and Denver University law students. They also broke an attendance record with their lunch talk with state Representative Manny Rutinel. This event was a kickoff for their spring legislative drafting project where they worked on rewriting their state’s endangered species laws. They also worked with organizations to support ballot initiatives. There is so much great work happening here and we are so proud of all of you!

Our Texas law chapter activated last year and hit the ground running! At the beginning of the year the Texas law chapter had 1 board member and 4 active members, but through their efforts, by the end of the year they had 5 board members and over 40 active chapter members. They went from hosting 0 events to 9 events throughout the year, including a showing of the documentary screenings of The Last Pig and the Smell of Money, raising awareness of farming practices. Their most significant event of the year was hosting an Animal Law Workshop consisting of students and faculty with Phoenix Zones Initiative, where they discussed policy implications of research involving animals. We are so proud of their dedication to creating a space for animals in their school.