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GW Law associate professor Joan E. Schaffner to receive Animal Law Award

CHICAGO, July 1, 2013 — The Animal Law Committee of the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section will honor Joan E. Schaffner of Washington, D.C., with the Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award. The annual award recognizes exceptional work by a member of an international, national, regional, state or local bar association’s animal law committee who has advanced the humane treatment of animals through commitment and leadership.

The award will be presented to Schaffner during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco at the TIPS Animal Law Committee Award Reception at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Reporters are welcome to attend the award presentation.

“Professor Schaffner works tirelessly to advance the interests of animals and the humans who care for them in a variety of ways, including her long history of work with the Animal Law Committee. She inspires many of us in the animal law field, both law students and lawyers alike, and we are honored to present her with this award,” said TIPS Animal Law Committee Chair Rebecca J. Huss of Valparaiso, Ind.

Schaffner is an associate professor of law at George Washington University Law School in D.C. She teaches civil procedure, remedies, sexuality and the law, and an animal law seminar, and she writes in these areas as well. She is the faculty adviser to Lambda Law, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student organization at GW, as well as the faculty adviser and editor-in-chief of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal.

She worked at the law firm of Irell Manella LLP in Los Angeles and clerked for Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Schaffner received her B.S. in mechanical engineering, summa cum laude, and her J.D. from the University of Southern California, and her M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Schaffner directs the GW Animal Law Program, which consists of the GW Animal Welfare Project, a pro bono effort of faculty and students devoted to researching and improving animal welfare laws in the District of Columbia; seminars in animal law; and a student chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. She co-directs the Animal Welfare Project and is the faculty adviser to the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Schaffner is admitted to the California State Bar and District of Columbia Bar. She is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the American Bar Association (Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section).

She is the co-editor and a contributing author of Litigating Animal Law Disputes: A Complete Guide for Lawyers and is the editor and a contributing author of A Lawyer’s Guide to Dangerous Dog Issues. Additionally, Schaffner has testified on behalf of non-breed-specific dangerous dog laws and has presented on animal law panels at conferences worldwide. She is in various organizations: chair (2009-10), publications vice chair and newsletter vice chair of the ABA TIPS Animal Law Committee; founding chair of the AALS Section on Animal Law (2008); consumer member for the District of Columbia Board of Veterinary Medicine; and fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

She has received various awards, including Honorary Member Golden Key Honor Society, Faculty Recipient of Lambda Law Award (1995, 1999) and 2009 Henry Bergh Leadership Award.

The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Animal Law Committee strives to address all issues concerning the intersection of animals and the law to create a paradigm shift resulting in a just world for all.

The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section unites plaintiff, defense, insurance and corporate counsel to advance the civil justice system. TIPS is a national source of expertise in tort, trial and insurance practice and brings lawyers together to share information and speak out on issues of importance. The section has about 25,000 members and over 30 general committees that focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas across the broad spectrum of civil law and practice. For more information, visit the TIPS website, www.americanbar.org/tips.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. To review our privacy statement, click here. Follow the latest ABA news at www.abanow.org and on Twitter @ABANews.