Cheryl Leahy

Cheryl Leahy is a solo practitioner in animal law-related litigation and estate planning. Her animal law practice includes work that leverages undercover investigations. She is also the Director of the newly-launched Legal Practices Resources Program (PRP) at the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy. The purpose of the PRP is to provide practical resources and a network kof support to introduce and improve the skills of lawyers in representing animal interests. The PRP fills crucial gaps to move lawyers (whether newer or seasoned and no matter their primary practice discipline) with a passion for animals to effectively utilize their skills to maximize impact for animals.

From 2006-2019, Cheryl helmed the Legal Advocacy program at Animal Outlook as its general counsel, targeting large-scale abuse of farmed animals through undercover investigations, proactive litigation, policy, and other innovative legal campaigns. From 2019-2020 she served as Animal Outlook’s executive vice president, and in 2020-2024 served as its executive director. In this role, she worked on the strategic direction of the organization as a whole, especially focusing on the use of undercover investigations as a mechanism for high-impact advocacy and culture change, and on targeting systemic abuse of farmed animals through proactive litigation. Her work, which has helped shape the development of animal law in the U.S., includes challenging cruel, yet standard, practices forced upon farmed animals as well as the misleading marketing and unfair business practices by corporations that produce meat, milk and eggs often found in grocery stores. She built and oversaw Animal Outlook’s campaigns to reform the practices and offerings of major food corporations to reduce animal suffering and bring more vegan options into the food supply, and the growth of the vegan movement in mainstream culture.

Her legal advocacy highlights include the initial research and case development of what became a class action lawsuit against the dairy industry for price fixing, settled for the consumer class for $52 million; whistleblower litigation, federal intervention, and a settlement resulting from Animal Outlook’s investigation of the largest lamb slaughterhouse in the U.S.; and an investigation of Tyson Foods that resulted in hard-hitting evidence driving the first-ever charges and convictions for broiler breeder chicken cruelty.

She developed and taught one of the nation’s first courses on animals in agriculture and the law at UCLA Law and served as the project coordinator for the university’s launch of its Animal Law and Policy Small Grants program. She also worked on the Initiative on Animals in Our Food System at the Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy.

Cheryl and her work have been featured in major media outlets including NPR, The Washington Post and many more. She is a regular speaker at law schools and conferences.

Some of her published pieces include Do Animal Protection Laws Address Widespread Cruelty? Unique Challenges and Potential for Addressing Institutional Abuse to Farmed Animals, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, USC Gould School of Law, Winter 2023; Chapter 5, “Animal Protection Organizations & the First Amendment: Key Issues for Lawyers,” REPRESENTING ANIMAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS: A LEGAL GUIDE FOR LAWYERS AND THEIR CLIENTS, American Bar Association, 2023; and (co-author) A New Age of Animal Law,” NYU LAW REVIEW ONLINE, NYU School of Law, Spring 2024.

Cheryl earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Chicago in Environmental Studies. She is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Maryland and California, and is based in Los Angeles. She currently serves on a number of boards and committees, including the board of Animal Outlook, the advisory board of Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and the Executive Committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association Animal Law Section.