HSUS Honors Law Firms for Pro Bono Work on Behalf of Animals

NEW YORK — The Humane Society of the United States today honors several of the nation's top law firms for outstanding pro bono litigation on behalf of animals in 2007.  The ceremony — to be held at New York University's Torch Club — celebrates a commitment by the nation's major law firms to animal protection litigation as a pro bono practice area.

"Laws to protect animals mean nothing unless we have talented and dedicated attorneys making sure they are enforced," said Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president of animal protection litigation for The HSUS. "The firms we recognize today saved thousands of animals from cruelty and abuse in 2007, and are critical to the success of our mission to confront animal cruelty in the courts."

The firms to be recognized today are:

• Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York and Miami for filing a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against the country's most notorious puppy dealer in southern Florida.  The case concerns over a hundred individuals from Florida and other states who bought puppy mill dogs suffering from severe health problems and genetic defects. The case has generated national discussion of the plight of puppy mill dogs, and was featured in the National Law Journal, ABC News, and dozens of other national media outlets.

• Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. for representing The HSUS before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in opposition to an appeal by a notorious dog fighter who set dogs upon each other in order to sell videos of the fights, and is trying to strike down the Federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act.  Enacted by Congress in 2000, the law prohibits the sale of videos in which live animals are actually wounded, tortured, or killed for the purpose of creating the videos. Latham attorneys assisted The HSUS on a number of other matters, including shark conservation and the protection of steller sea lions.   

• Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis, Minn., for representing The HSUS in a lawsuit to stop the federal government from stripping imperiled wolves in the Great Lakes region of all protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.  Faegre lawyers also helped The HSUS secure a settlement with the state of Minnesota to protect federally protected Canada Lynx from fur trapping.

• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., for assisting HSUS in a number of matters, including the filing of a key friend of the court brief in a landmark case before the New Jersey Supreme Court challenging the state's "humane" standards for the treatment of farm animals.  The groundbreaking case seeks a judicial declaration that certain common factory farming practices — including the intensive confinement of veal calves and sows in crates — are inhumane under New Jersey law.

Four other top firms are receiving special recognition for having contributed more than 200 hours of pro bono service to The HSUS in 2007, including; O'Melveny & Myers in New York, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles, Schiff Hardin in Chicago and San Francisco, Skadden Arps in Washington, D.C., and White & Case in New York.

The reception is being hosted in partnership with The BeKind Foundation, and with the generous support of Frances Hayward.

For more information on The HSUS' efforts to protect animals in the courts, or to sign up to receive the Animal Protection Litigation program's online newsletter, go to hsus.org/in_the_courts/.

Facts:

• The Animal Protection Litigation section conducts precedent-setting legal campaigns on behalf of animals in state and federal courts around the country.
• With a staff of 13 lawyers located in Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco and Seattle, a network of over 1,000 pro bono attorneys, and dozens of active cases, The HSUS has the largest Animal Protection Litigation program in the country.
• In 2007, the nation's leading law firms contributed more than $2,500,000 in pro bono legal services to The HSUS' litigation program.
• The HSUS' litigation program celebrated more than a dozen major legal victories in 2007, including court orders halting horse slaughter for human consumption nationwide, protecting Canada lynx from fur traps, blocking mountain lion hunting in Arizona, fining the nation's largest foie gras producer thousands of dollars for factory farm pollution, protecting dogs in Florida puppy mills, preventing endangered whales from dying in fishing gear entanglement, cracking down on canned hunting in Pennsylvania, and upholding New Mexico's newly enacted ban on cockfighting.
• The HSUS's legal campaigns have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, National Law Journal, Washington Lawyer, CNN, NPR and dozens of other national media outlets.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.