Close

Kathy Hessler

Kathy is Assistant Dean, Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative. Kathy has been a clinical law professor for 30 years and has been teaching animal law for 22 years. She is the first law professor hired to teach animal law full-time. Kathy helped develop the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School (L&C). For fourteen years she taught there and directed the Animal Law Clinic. She also created and directed the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and is the co-founder of World Aquatic Animal Day along with Amy P. Wilson. Kathy co-authored “Animal Law in a Nutshell”, “Animal Law – New Perspectives on  Teaching Traditional Law” and the amicus briefs submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens and Justice v. Gwendolyn Vercher cases. She has written numerous law review and other articles and teaches and lectures widely across the U.S. and internationally.

Kathy was a board member with the Animal Legal Defense Fund; helped found the Animal Law Committee of the Cuyahoga County Bar; and was the chair and a founder of the Animal Law Section and the Balance in Legal Education Section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). She was also a co-chair of the Clinical Legal Education Section of the AALS, is on the board of the Center for Teaching Peace and is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

Kathy is vegan and has (at least) a sentiocentric moral scope. Kathy is non-religious and has a naturalistic worldview.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

Kathy at GWU
Kathy’s papers at SSRN

Latest work

Picture of John Sanbonmatsu wearing glasses looking down at a document he is reading.

Have We Fallen for the Greatest Deception?

Philosopher John Sanbonmatsu discusses his tour de force book, The Omnivore's Deception. Sentientism episode 244.
More

Have We Fallen for the Greatest Deception?

Philosopher John Sanbonmatsu discusses his tour de force book, The Omnivore's Deception. Sentientism episode 244.
More

Lunch (or just a drink) in London on 15th March? And Some Other Updates

We’d love you to join us at our fifth London Sentientism worldview meetup. Please sign up for free at the Luma invite so Michael can book a good space. We’ll be […]
More

Spirituality, Veganism & Sentientism: Mari Andrew on Animals, Meaning, and Moral Hierarchy

Mari Andrew is a New York Times Bestselling writer, artist, speaker, teacher, and needle-felting enthusiast. A conversation about spirituality, veganism and sentientism.
More

Join our mailing list and stay up to date

Sentientism

Handcrafted with ♥ by Cage Undefined

This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to provide a more personalized experience and to track your whereabouts around our website in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation. If you decide to to opt-out of any future tracking, a cookie will be setup in your browser to remember this choice for one year.

Accept or Deny