School Notes: Yale Law School
November/December 2019

Program addresses ethical treatment of animals

A new initiative, the Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School, launched this semester as an interdisciplinary “think-and-do tank.” The program is dedicated to developing new strategies to address industrialized animal cruelty and its impacts, and to drawing attention to the questions of conscience raised by humanity’s treatment of animals. The program is led by faculty directors Doug Kysar, Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law, and Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer on Law Jonathan Lovvorn, along with an executive director, Viveca Morris ’15, ’18MEM, ’19MBA, who recently graduated with master’s degrees from both the School of Management and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. LEAP is supported by generous gifts from an anonymous donor; the Quinn Foundation, Chuck and Jennifer Laue, directors; the Brooks McCormick Jr. Trust for Animals Rights Law and Policy; the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy Inc.; and the Animal Welfare Trust.

MFIA Clinic helps support public-interest journalism

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic (MFIA) have launched the Free Expression Legal Network (FELN), a coalition of law school clinicians and academic non-clinicians who provide pro bono legal support for public-interest journalism. At the time of its launch, FELN included 22 law school clinics that provide students hands-on experience representing journalists and documentary filmmakers, among others. The network also includes two dozen law professors who frequently write and research in the areas of free expression, media law, and government transparency. The network grew out of discussions between the Reporters Committee, a national nonprofit offering free legal services and resources to journalists, and the MFIA Clinic. The Reporters Committee provides day-to-day support for FELN and directs the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Virginia Law School.