{"id":3144,"date":"2024-09-13T16:57:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/?page_id=3144"},"modified":"2025-07-21T18:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T18:26:46","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Learn more about the Animal Law & Policy Clinic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Animal Law & Policy Clinic provides students the opportunity to advance the interests of wild, farmed, and captive animals through litigation, administrative rulemaking, policy initiatives, organizing, and other legal advocacy avenues. You will gain direct experience with a broad range of federal and state laws\u2014such as the Endangered Species Act, the Animal Welfare Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act\u2014and develop critically important strategic thinking and analytical skills. You will have significant responsibility over your projects, and will learn best practices of case management, including how to juggle multiple projects and how to work with co-counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet the Instructors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mary Hollingsworth<\/strong>
Visiting Clinical Professor and Director<\/strong>
mhollingsworth@law.harvard.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mary Hollingsworth, Visiting Clinical Professor and Clinical Director of Harvard Law School\u2019s Animal Law & Policy Clinic was formerly a senior trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Wildlife and Marine Resources Section, where she worked from 2011-2023. She has more than a decade of experience litigating cases arising under the Endangered Species Act in federal courts across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She received a B.A. in Political Science and Russian & East European Studies from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law. After law school, she clerked for Justice Michael Ryan of the Arizona Supreme Court and Judge Murray Snow of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona before joining the U.S. Department of Justice through the Honors Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"a
Penny the Beagle visited the Animal Law & Policy Clinic seminar with her caretaker Liza Oliver (second from left). Credit: James Rasaiah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the cases that matters to me the most,\u201d Hollingsworth told her students. \u201cI hope that you will have a case like that in your lifetime: something that you feel passionate about and that sticks with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky Penny<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>
\n

Lucky Penny<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Klein<\/a> \/ Nov 25, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, a very special client had the chance to meet the attorney who saved her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penny, a 3 year-old beagle, visited Harvard Law School to meet Mary Hollingsworth, director of the Animal Law & Policy Clinic, whose work led to her release from an inhumane breeding facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the story of 4,000 beagles being rescued from Envigo RMS, a company that breeds and sells animals for research, made headlines nationwide. In her role as senior trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Hollingsworth and her DOJ colleagues spearheaded the litigation that led to their release, saving the puppies from dire and inhumane conditions.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Credit: James Rasaiah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn more about the Animal Law & Policy Clinic The Animal Law & Policy Clinic provides students the opportunity to advance the interests of wild, farmed, and captive animals through litigation, administrative rulemaking, policy initiatives, organizing, and other legal advocacy avenues. You will gain direct experience with a broad range of federal and state laws\u2014such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11897,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3144","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}