SOUTH ROYALTON, Vermont (September 30, 2024) — Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is proud to welcome its first class of Brooks Institute for Animal Rights and Policy Inc. Animal Law LLM Fellows for the 2024-2025 school year.
This premier fellowship is designed for exceptional students committed to pursuing the protection and rights of nonhuman animals. Fellows gain academic and career mentorship from VLGS Associate Professor and Animal Law and Policy Institute Director Delcianna Winders, who will guide their pursuits in research, scholarship and animal advocacy practice while they support the work of the Institute.
Winders shared, “It’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to work with this stellar cohort of attorneys. They bring a wealth of experience, and I couldn’t be happier that they are focusing their talents on animal advocacy.”
Four fellows have joined VLGS from around the world to study and train with the school’s leading scholars and practitioners.
Carlos Contreras Lopez earned law degrees from Pontifical Xaverian University (Bogotá, Colombia) and the University of the Basque Country (Donostia, Spain) and a Ph.D. at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As the founder of a law firm specializing in animal rights law, he has been at the forefront of significant legal battles, earning the Lush Public Awareness Prize in 2022. His extensive animal rights law practice led to a position as the president of the Barcelona Bar Association’s Commission for the Protection of Animal Rights. As a visiting fellow in the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law School, he continued to expand his expertise, focusing on global animal rights issues. His mission is to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into animal rights law.
Lana Nadj is a practicing lawyer with a focus on animal rights and welfare from Australia. She has been involved in a range of projects including research into the history of the invidious practice of transporting live animals out of Australia for breeding and slaughter. Other projects have included advising in relation to the animal welfare impacts of transport regulations in Australia, penning density, access to feed and water, freedom of information and site access. She is interested in the way we construct legal and cultural categories—such as “invasive’ species,” “food animals,” and “property vs. persons”—and how these categories can be challenged to improve the lives of animals.
Joseph Pius Ubenyi is a graduate of Benue State University and the Nigerian Law School who served as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He has been in active legal practice for over ten years. His interest in animal law was ignited after seeing the intense suffering of endangered species in Nigeria. Even though these species enjoy statutory recognition under the law as endangered, their populations are continuing to steadily decline. His goal is to teach and author animal law textbooks that will serve as a roadmap for the next generation of animal law practitioners in Nigeria, and by extension help preserve endangered species.
Originally from Canada but currently living in Alabama, Anette Sikka has always gravitated towards work that expands the types of rights that are recognized within legal systems. Her work focuses on how legal and legislative efforts intersect with media and public perception, and how that influences animal welfare rhetoric and efforts to expand nonhuman rights recognition. She hopes this work will serve both as an explanatory project to help better understand animal welfare in the Deep South, and to highlight future avenues for legal change.types of rights that are recognized within legal systems. Her work focuses on how legal and legislative efforts intersect with media and public perception, and how that influences animal welfare rhetoric and efforts to expand nonhuman rights recognition. She hopes this work will serve both as an explanatory project to help better understand animal welfare in the Deep South, and to highlight future avenues for legal change.
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About Vermont Law and Graduate School: Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.
About Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Animal Law and Policy Institute: Established in 2021, the Institute is dedicated to supporting aspiring animal advocates through rigorous coursework and rewarding mentorships, as well as real-world trainings and experiences. Faculty, staff and fellows collaborate closely with the school’s other leading programs—including environmental law and policy, food and agriculture, and restorative justice—recognizing the interconnections between justice movements, animals, humans and the environment.