ABA to host symposium on animal shelter law on Oct. 18 in Virginia Beach
Investigation and case preparation for neglect, cruelty and dogfighting cases; shelter animal transport and the law; dangerous dog proceedings and cats in the community will be among the topics discussed by some of the country’s leading animal crimes prosecutors during the American Bar Association-sponsored 2017 Symposium: Animal Shelter Law on Oct. 18 in Virginia Beach, Va.
Among the featured speakers for the one-day event will be Michelle Welch, senior assistant attorney general in the Virginia attorney general’s office. As the director of the Animal Law Unit, Welch is called on by agencies all over the commonwealth to act as a special prosecutor in animal cruelty and animal fighting cases. She has been appointed a special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia to aid in animal fighting prosecutions. She frequently gives advice to local law enforcement authorities and prosecutors in Virginia and across the nation.
Other animal law expert panelists include:
• Fred M. Kray, Fred M. Kray PA, Gainesville, Fla.
• Heidi Meinzer, Law Office of Heidi Meinzer, PLLC, Alexandria, Va.
• Fran Ortiz, South Texas College of Law, Houston
• Joan Schaffner, George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C.
• John D. Boone, research director, Great Basin Bird Observatory, Reno, NV
• Richard C. Angelo, Jr., legislative attorney, Cat Initiatives, Best Friends Animal Society, Kanab, Utah
• Jane E. McBride, Illinois Humane, Springfield, Ill.
There are an estimated 14,000 shelters and rescues in the United States. Of this number, approximately 3,350 are brick and mortar facilities and the balance are fostering groups licensed as shelters and specialty rescues. Nationwide an estimated 6.5 to 8 million animals are taken in by these facilities and organizations each year.
The program will examine:
• General liability and litigation involving shelters
• Many shelters are responsible for cruelty and neglect investigations, as well as dog bite and attack investigations. This program features two of the nation’s experts on cruelty prosecutions and dangerous dog proceedings.
Today, there is significant activity transporting animals from areas of great supply of shelter animals to urban centers, where adoption rates are high. This program looks at legal considerations shelters face in the transport of animals to better adoption markets.
The humane treatment of feral cats, also known as community cats, by shelters is an ongoing issue. This program includes a new twist wherein a wildlife biologist shares the platform with two lawyers with expertise in all matters cat to talk about feral cat population dynamics and best practices in controlling populations.
ABA names recipients of 2018 Stonewall Award honoring LGBT advancements in the legal profession
Three longstanding LGBT legal activists will be honored by the American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with its sixth annual Stonewall Award during a ceremony on Feb. 3, 2018, at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Named after the New York City Stonewall Inn police raid and riot of June 28, 1969, which was a turning point in the gay rights movement, the award recognizes lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes.
The 2017 award recipients:
• Phyllis Randolph Frye, an associate judge for the Municipal Courts in Houston, is the first openly transgender judge appointed in Texas. Born as Phillip Frye, she is an Eagle Scout and was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Frye graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in mechanical engineering. She was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1972, transitioned in 1976 and earned an M.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Houston. In 1992, she convened the first International Conference on Transgender Law & Employment Policy in Houston. In 2010, Houston Mayor Annise Parker appointed Frye as an associate judge for the City of Houston Municipal Courts and the Houston City Council unanimously approved her appointment. Frye retains her senior partnership with Frye, Oaks, Benavidez & O’Neil PLLC, where she devotes her practice exclusively to taking transgender clients – both adults and minors – through the Texas courts to change the clients’ names and genders on their legal documents. In 2013, Frye was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Transgender Foundation of America.
• Eduardo Juarez is a supervisory trial attorney with the San Antonio Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he litigates individual, class and systemic lawsuits under the federal civil rights statutes prohibiting employment discrimination. In August 2011, he worked on detail as special assistant to Chai Feldblum, the first out lesbian EEOC commissioner. His work in the LGBT legal community led to accolades, including the 2014 EEOC Pride “Chai Feldblum Award” for his significant contributions to the LGBT community. Juarez is a former public defender in Washington, D.C., and began his legal career as an associate with the law firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago. He received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his law degree from the University of Michigan. Active in various LGBT political and professional organizations, he is a past president and first Hispanic openly gay man of the National LGBT Bar Association and past chair of the LGBT Law Section for the State Bar of Texas.
• Jennifer L. Levi is the director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project and a nationally recognized expert on transgender legal issues. She co-edited “Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy,” the first book to address legal issues facing transgender people in the family law context and provide practitioners the tools to effectively represent transgender clients. Levi has served as counsel in a number of precedent-setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people, including: O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which established that medical care relating to gender transition qualifies as a medical deduction for federal income tax purposes; Doe v. Yunits, in which she represented a transgender student denied the right to attend school because of the clothing she wore; and Adams v. Bureau of Prisons, which successfully challenged a federal prison policy excluding medical care for transgender inmates who came into the system without a transition-related medical plan, among many others. She also has worked on several high-profile family law cases including the Miller v. Jenkins case establishing full parental rights for a Vermont civil union spouse and cases in Connecticut and Massachusetts that established the right of same-sex couples to marry. Levi is a law professor at Western New England University School of Law in Springfield, Mass. She serves on the Legal Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and is a founding member of both the Transgender Law & Policy Institute and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago Law School, Levi is a former law clerk to Judge Michael Boudin at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
“The American Bar Association is pleased to recognize these three gay rights pioneers. Each has been a forceful voice for LGBT inclusion and legal progress,” said Mark Johnson Roberts, chair of the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
The ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity leads the ABA’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and full and equal participation by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the ABA, the legal profession and society. Created in 2007, the commission seeks to secure equal treatment in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Raising the Bar series continues on Oct. 11
Raising the Bar, an educational series raising employer awareness of current issues in employment and labor law and offered by Detroit-based management side labor and employment law firm Nemeth Law, P.C., returns on Wednesday, Oct. 11, to address the practice of ‘Conducting Workplace Investigations.’ In this session, Nemeth Law attorneys will conduct a mock investigation and discuss how it may be used as a tool for diminishing the effects of bad behavior when properly managed.
Employers are seeing an uptick in the number of employee complaints about co-workers doing or saying offensive things, according to Terry Bonnette, a partner at Nemeth Law.
“Employers have many questions about how to look into situations where employees are reacting to each other’s vocal personal beliefs; they want to know what measures they can take without crossing the privacy line,” Bonnette said. “A thorough investigation may help in resolving the issue or be used as a valuable defense to a lawsuit, but it could also lose effectiveness if not conducted using appropriate guidelines.”
Nemeth Law attorneys will discuss best practices for employers in today’s charged workplace climate. Topics include:
• Pre-Investigation: What warrants an investigation, who should investigate, and how to manage the alleged victim and alleged wrong-doer in the meantime.
• Mock Investigation: How to interview the victim, the witnesses and the accused.
• Privacy, surveillance, off-duty conduct, social media and workplace searches.
• He said/She said: Making credibility determinations during a workplace investigation.
• Preventing retaliation and compliance with the EEOC’s new anti-retaliation guidelines.
• Concluding the investigation: What to include, what not to include and what to share.
Raising the Bar will be held on Oct. 11, at the Management Education Center, 811 West Square Lake Road, Troy. Continental breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m. The program begins at 9 a.m. and ends at noon. The cost of the event is $75 per person and pre-registration is required. To register, e-mail Pamela Perkowski at pperkowski@nemethlawpc.com or call 313.567.5921.
