The Humane Society of the United States and George Washington University Law School in May announced the creation of the Animal Law Litigation Project. This joint venture is designed to aid enforcement of the nation's animal protection laws by giving law students experience representing the interests of animals in the courts.

The project offers a select group of law students a chance to work side-by-side with the HSUS's legal staff on animal protection cases.

Clinical students will enroll in a new course at GW Law School—Animal Law Lawyering—and receive credit for their work on federal and state court cases pertaining to wildlife, entertainment animals, animals used in research, and food animals.

"The Animal Law Litigation Project represents an unprecedented alliance between a humane organization and one of our nation's leading law schools to move animal law out of the classroom and into the nation's courtrooms," said Jonathan Lovvorn, HSUS vice president of animal protection litigation and co-teacher of an animal law seminar at GW Law School.

The announcement of the new project follows on the heels of the HSUS's formation of an animal protection litigation section to implement new legal campaigns on behalf of animals. With a staff of eight full-time lawyers, the new section is the largest in-house animal protection litigation department in the country and annually offers several litigation fellowships for law school graduates.