Vanessa Shakib
Attorney and Animal Advocate
About Vanessa
Vanessa is an expert in animal law, government accountability, and illegal business practices. Her work has been featured by CNN, Fox News, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, USA Today, the Guardian, Science Magazine, and more. Vanessa co-founded and co-directs Advancing Law for Animals, a non-profit law firm for our non-human friends. There, she develops impact litigation to further the interests of animals exploited in research and industrial food production. Vanessa is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School, and recognized as 2022-2023 Adjunct Professor of the Year. She regularly presents talks as an invited expert in animal law both nationally and abroad.
Prior to animal law, Vanessa specialized in illegal taxation, consumer protection, and inverse condemnation, among other practice areas. Her track record in government oversight informs her work at Advancing Law for Animals, where she has successfully challenged cruel and illegally-promulgated regulations at the federal level, and lack of animal-welfare enforcement at the local level. Vanessa continues to consult on a variety of legal matters through her private practice.
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Speaking Engagements
Strategic Legal Battles in Animal Advocacy, The Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit, Washington DC (May 18, 2024) (upcoming)
Animals Need Lawyers: Litigation to Help Our Nonhuman Friends, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Virtual (March 18, 2024)
Animal Law Podcast #105: Breaking the Rules?: Taxpayer-Funded Animal Research Outside the US, Our Hen House, Virtual (Feb. 28, 2024)
On Balance, NewsNation (Nov. 10, 2023)
Animals in Harm’s Way: Legal Arguments and Hands-on Intervention, Animal Law Conference, Los Angeles (Oct. 21, 2023)
Unconventional Approaches to Challenging Factory Farming, North American Animal Law Conference, University of Toronto (Sep. 29, 2023)
Advancing Law for Animals with Vanessa Shakib, University of Denver Sturm College of Law (Sep. 19, 2023)
Factors Impacting Newsworthiness of Animal Welfare Litigation, Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, University of Oxford (Aug. 9, 2023)
Understanding & Combatting Animal Experimentation, The Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit, Los Angeles (July 29, 2023)
The Legal Battleground for Animals, Vegan Women Summit, New York City (May 19, 2023)
How I Became an Animal Lawyer, Plant Futures, Virtual (April 27, 2023)
Inside Edition (April 14, 2023)
On Balance, NewsNation (April 7, 2023)
CNN Tonight, CNN (April 3, 2023)
The Girl and the Goat, KNX News (April 3, 2023)
Animal Agriculture’s Environmental Issues, UC Davis School of Law, Virtual (Feb. 24, 2022)
New Lawsuit Says NIH Illegally Skips Foreign Animal Lab Oversight, VoiceAmerica Influencers, Virtual (Feb. 7, 2022)
Cultivating a Career in Animal Law, Advancing Law for Animals, Virtual (Nov. 16, 2021)
U.S. Laws and the Ongoing Risk of Zoonotic Diseases, Animal Legal Defense Fund Animal Law Symposium, Virtual (April 24, 2021)
Advancing Law for Animals versus the USDA with Vanessa Shakib, The VedgeTalk Podcast, Virtual (April 11, 2021)
Animal Law Podcast #70: The Case of the “Teachable Moments,” Our Hen House, Virtual (March 31, 2021)
Non-Human Primates in Laboratories and the Law, Guest Lecture, Marymount University, Virtual (Feb. 11, 2021)
Activist Defense, Animal Legal Defense Fund Animal Law Symposium, Los Angeles, California (TBD; rescheduled due to COVID-19)
The Intersectionality of our Values and Forward Thinking Movements, Vegan Fashion Week, The Future of Fashion, Los Angeles, California (October 2019)
U.S. Legal Trends Impacting Animals, International Animal Rights Conference, Luxembourg (September 2019)
Strategies for Defeating the Use of Animals in Science, Animal Rights National Conference, Washington DC (July 2019)
Animal Justice and Human Rights, UCLA Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Liberation Lawyering, Los Angeles, California (March 2019)