Call for Papers

The Animal Legal Defense Fund Call for Papers is closed. Selected presenters will be announced on the 2024 Student Convention agenda. Thank you to all who submitted. Stay tuned for details for future opportunities.

Student Convention

The Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Convention provides an opportunity for students to meet and receive career advice from leaders in animal law and network with Animal Legal Defense Fund student chapter members from law schools across the country.

The event is open to law students and will include a career panel featuring animal law experts from a variety of occupational backgrounds, lunch, and networking opportunities. In addition, three students will be selected to present their papers on the Law Student Scholarship Panel.

Call for Papers

Those interested in presenting on the Law Student Scholarship panel should submit a completed paper on an animal law topic. This year’s call is purposefully open in efforts to see which topics and issues are most pressing to students today. Papers should be in support of animal protection.

Panel papers will be chosen by a committee of leading animal law experts and will be scored anonymously. Authors of selected papers will be invited to present their work at the Student Convention, receiving preparation and practice time with staff to ready for their presentations. Select students will also receive travel accommodations to attend the Student Convention and the Animal Law Conference, co-presented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Submission Guidelines (please read carefully):

• Author must have been enrolled in law school when the paper was written.
• Papers must have been written within the last two years.
• Only complete papers will be considered; there is no length requirement.
• Remove identification (name and law school) from your paper but include this information separately in the body of the email.
• Presenters must be available and willing to attend the Student Convention in-person.
• Presenters will have approximately 25 minutes to present their paper.
• Papers may be published or unpublished, but if published, permission must be obtained to share the paper on the Convention website.
• By submitting a paper, you are affirming that it has been fact-checked and sources appropriately cited.
• Must be fluent in English and comfortable presenting and answering questions without a translator.
• The deadline to submit a paper is July 29, 2024.

Papers should be submitted in PDF format with the paper title at the top with all other identifying information removed. In the body of the email, include: your name, paper title, law school, and graduation date. Send submissions to Priscilla Rader Culp at prader@aldf.org with the subject line “ALDF Call for Papers” by the deadline. You will be notified of the status of your submission by late August.