Spotlight: Mei Brunson

Mei Brunson is a 2024 recipient of the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Advancement in Animal Law Scholarship.

This award honors students who demonstrate a commitment to the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s mission “to advance the interests and protect the lives of animals through the legal system.” Recipients are actively involved in their Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter while in law school and show promise in the field after graduation.

Mei Brunson is a rising 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School. She desires to leverage litigation to advance justice for individuals, communities, animals, and places traditionally afforded the least legal protections. While remaining cognizant of the law’s limitations, Mei is eager to expand her legal toolkit, and believes that creativity and tenacity are key to challenging the entrenched assumption that animals (along with everything else under the sun) are exploitable.

What Animal Legal Defense Fund student chapter activities are you proudest of and why?
Under the leadership of Co-Directors Kaiti Bestor and Eric Sugarman, the Lewis & Clark Law School ALDF Student Chapter organized a myriad of events during the 2023-24 school year. Some of my personal favorite speaker events were those featuring Emma Marris (author of Wild Souls), Dustin Crummett (Executive Director of the Insect Institute), and the Portland Animal Welfare Team (a grassroots, volunteer-powered nonprofit that provides veterinary services to families facing houselessness and financial hardship). Through these lunchtime presentations, students were exposed to a wide diversity of topics related to animal law and advocacy – such as wild animal welfare and insect farming.

In addition, Meghan Jones established the Plant-Based Dining Subcommittee within our chapter this year, which works to increase vegan dining options and advocates for the adoption of a “default veg” approach on campus. As part of this initiative, Meghan invited Katie Cantrell from Greener by Default to campus. Katie delivered a fantastic presentation to faculty and student organization leadership about the potential for impact by implementing a “default veg” approach to catered campus events. This new Subcommittee provides a tangible and close-to-home opportunity for students to advocate for animals within the Lewis & Clark Law School community that they are a part of – our chapter plans to continue what Meghan started next year.

What is an animal law related goal of yours for the upcoming academic year?
I am excited to be stepping into new roles as Co-Director of the Lewis & Clark ALDF Student Chapter (along with powerhouse Suzannah Smith) and Submissions Editor for the Animal Law Review (shout-out to my co-Submissions Editor, Camille Bond). Our incoming LC ALDF Board has already commenced planning a balance of academic, professional, and social events for the 2024-25 school year. We aim to foster an engaged and supportive community of animal law advocates, as well as lend support to other justice movements both on and off campus. As a Submissions Editor, I endeavor to help solicit and select scholarly articles for publication in the Animal Law Review that will genuinely strengthen our collective animal advocacy. If possible, I would love to squeeze in one or two more animal law internships as well – they have been the most meaningful learning experiences during my time in law school.

What are your plans/goals for post-graduation?
Following graduation, I aspire to work in the nonprofit/public interest sector and advance animal protections through the law. I am particularly interested in leveraging civil litigation and constitutional law to benefit animals. I believe that through strategic litigation, animal law can materially improve the lives of animals while promoting a broader paradigm shift in how we assign value and bestow legal protections upon diverse categories – of animals, humans, and even environmental entities. As I prepare for 3L, I am also contemplating judicial clerkships as a means to round out my legal skills before seeking employment in animal law litigation.

What is one piece of advice that you would like to pass on to other Animal Legal Defense Fund student chapter leaders?
This is a tough question to answer because I have only recently transitioned into a leadership role within the Lewis & Clark ALDF Student Chapter. However, something that my Co-Director and I are aspiring towards – and would encourage other student chapter leaders to do the same – is creating a supportive animal law community where resources, tips, and connections are freely exchanged. Where collaboration and knowledge sharing are the norm. Sadly, this does not always come intuitively to us law school students, as it runs counter to the competitive atmosphere that plagues the law school experience… To target this, our Board is considering reinstating a mentorship program through which upper-division animal law students can mentor chapter members, 1L or otherwise, who are in search of animal law or general law school support.

Learn more about the other 2024 Advancement in Animal Law Scholarship winners.