Animal Law Podcast #85: Desmond’s Law

On this episode I will be speaking with  Jessica Rubin, who is the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Director of the Animal Law Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law. She will be discussing a Connecticut law, called Desmond’s Law, which allows law students, and lawyers, to be appointed to assist the court in certain animal cruelty cases in the hopes that these cases, which are often factually complex and not well-resourced, receive the attention they deserve. She'll also tell us about the Animal Law Clinic, which trains and supports students involved in this work.

Plus, before we get to that interview, we also so fortunate to have Sherry Colb and Michael Dorf, both professors at Cornell Law School who you have heard from before on the Animal Law Podcast, as well as on the Our Hen House podcast, for a quick conversation about the Happy the Elephant case brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which, as you probably know, was recently decided in the New York Court of Appeals.

Professor Jessica Rubin is the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Director of the Animal Law Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law.  She was instrumental in creating Desmond’s Law, which allows Connecticut courts to appoint advocates—law students under supervision—in animal cruelty cases. Professor Rubin actively supervises students and appears in court to advocate for justice in cases of animal cruelty.  She created UConn Law School’s Animal Law Clinic, a clinic through which students appear in state courts as advocates under Desmond’s Law.  She is widely regarded as an expert in the field of animal law and is a graduate of Cornell University and the Cornell Law School.  Professor Rubin has taught in Istanbul, Turkey for the Open Society Foundation, and in Seoul, South Korea.  In both locations, she supplemented her teaching activities with local stray animal rescue and relocation efforts.

Sherry F. Colb earned an A.B. from Columbia College (Valedictorian) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Before joining the Rutgers University faculty, she clerked for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. She is currently the C.S. Wong Professor of Law at Cornell University. She has co-authored a book about the connection between animal rights and zygote rights, Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights, and a book about animal rights, Mind If I Order the Cheeseburger? And Other Questions People Ask Vegans. She composes a bi-weekly column on Justia’s Verdict as well as regular posts on the blog, Dorf on Law.

Michael C. Dorf is the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, where he teaches constitutional law, federal courts, and related subjects. He has authored or co-authored six books (including, with Sherry Colb, Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights)and over one hundred scholarly articles and essays for law journals and peer-reviewed science and social science journals. He also frequently writes for the general public. In addition to occasional contributions to The New York Times, USA Today, CNN.com, The Los Angeles Times, and other wide-circulation publications, Professor Dorf has been writing a bi-weekly column since 2000 and publishes a popular blog, Dorf on Law. Dorf received his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. He served as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. He maintains an active pro bono practice mostly consisting of writing Supreme Court briefs.

View the full episode with resources here: https://ourhenhouse.org/ALP85/ The Animal Law Podcast is released by the nonprofit organization, Our Hen House. Share your thoughts with us on social media! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ourhenhouse).