Animal Law Committee Launches at NYCLA

 

Animal Law Committee Launches at NYCLA

 

April 28, 2010 – New York, NY – The New York County Lawyers’ Association’s (NYCLA) Board of Directors approved the creation of a new committee, the Animal Law Committee, at its April 12 meeting. The new committee will provide a forum for discussion, debate and, where it deems appropriate, recommendations to the Association concerning legal issues relating to animals.

 

NYCLA’s Animal Law Committee expects to engage both new and senior attorneys in the legal issues affecting animals and persons with an interest in animals, including the intersection of animal law and other practice areas, such as criminal, housing, tort, trusts and estates, matrimonial and international law. Animal welfare issues include orders of protection, disaster planning (what to do with a pet during and after a disaster) and animal-cruelty and trafficking laws. The committee plans to sponsor continuing legal education programs, seminars and public forums; prepare comments on cases, advisory reports on proposed legislation and amicus briefs pertaining to pending litigation or appeals; and provide legal resources for attorneys in diverse practice areas. The committee will seek to foster a spirit of collegiality among NYCLA members by assisting and serving as a source of current information for attorneys who are not familiar with animal-related causes and the law.

 

The Animal Law Committee will be co-chaired by Rachel Hirschfeld, a nationally known expert in estate planning and passionate advocate for people and their pets, and Kim Bressant-Kibwe, trusts and estates counsel, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Veronica Elise Frosen, Law office of Yu & Associates PLLC, has been appointed vice chair of the committee.

 

The New York County Lawyers’ Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

 

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