Honoring Pro Bono Legal Professionals for Animals

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) was proud to honor more than a dozen law firms, individual attorneys, and academic professionals with the Advancement in Animal Law Pro Bono Achievement Award, Compassionate Counsel Award, and Animal Law Ally Award during the 32nd annual Animal Law Conference in October 2024. 

ALDF’s Pro Bono Network — composed of thousands of law firms, attorneys, and paralegals who have signed up to volunteer their time to help animals — is the largest group of its kind in the United States. 

The honorees are among the volunteer legal professionals who together contributed more than 5,000 hours of their time to support ALDF’s work this past year, equaling more than $3.3 million in donated legal services. They include: 

Animal Legal Defense Fund Advancement in Animal Law Pro Bono Achievement Award

Alston & Bird
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy
Dykema
Fenwick & West
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
K&L Gates
Latham & Watkins
McDermott Will & Emery
White & Case
Winston & Strawn  

Recipients of the Advancement in Animal Law Pro Bono Achievement Award have directly helped ALDF in our work protecting the lives and advancing the interests of animals through the legal system. Their volunteer legal work included assisting ALDF in lawsuits challenging inhumane conditions at roadside zoos, taking on a shadowy network of puppy mill brokers and transporters, challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s issuance of an animal exhibitor license to a roadside zoo in violation of the Animal Welfare Act, successfully prohibiting a family of puppy traffickers from continuing to sell dogs after they knowingly sold puppies desperately ill with viral diseases and parasite infestations to unsuspecting families, and more. They also provided important legal research in support of ALDF’s efforts fighting unconstitutional Ag-Gag laws and inhumane and environmentally disastrous factory farms, among other work.  

Animal Legal Defense Fund Compassionate Counsel Award
Tarak Anada
Nora Constance Marino 

Every year, ALDF receives hundreds of requests for assistance from members of the public and other animal protection organizations. We work to pair these requests with members of our Pro Bono Network who may be able to help. Their assistance can range from helping guardians of dogs who have been wrongfully designated as “dangerous,” to families facing eviction because of dog-breed-based housing discrimination, to animal shelters and sanctuaries needing assistance with legal issues such as achieving 501(c)(3) nonprofit status or providing guidance on adoption contracts. Together, Pro Bono Network members have donated hundreds of volunteer hours toward matters such as these. The Compassionate Counsel Award honors these volunteer legal professionals. This year’s honorees helped with matters including wrongful “dangerous dog” designations, a cat adoption issue, and families whose dogs were wrongfully shot by neighbors or law enforcement officers. 

Animal Legal Defense Fund Animal Law Ally Award
Dr. Adam Feltz
Dr. Silke Feltz 

The Animal Law Ally Award recognizes professionals who don’t work in the legal industry, but whose work nonetheless contributes to the field of animal law. This year’s honorees are survey experts whose work has underscored the call to stop corporate animal agriculture interests from falsely presenting their products as “climate-friendly” in order to attract environmentally conscious consumers. 

The Animal Law Conference is the premier event in the field of animal law, held every year both in-person and virtually and co-presented by ALDF and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. Video from previous conferences is currently available free on the Animal Law Conference YouTube channel, where panel discussions from the 2024 event will later be posted. Those who wish to attend a future Animal Law Conference may sign up to receive email notifications about this and other events, as well as animal law updates and opportunities to take action for animals locally and at the federal level. 

Interested in becoming a part of ALDF’s Pro Bono Network? Learn more and apply as an attorney or paralegal, or find additional opportunities for legal professionals to get involved in animal law.