It may not have been until 2017 that Corporate Counsel named the team behind People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Inc. one of the best legal departments , but the award is decades in the making. After all, that’s about as long as it took to bring down a nearly 150-year-old institution, the fabled Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. As if that win weren’t enough, PETA also recently defeated SeaWorld San Diego’s request before a California regulator to expand its orca tanks, forcing the tourist attraction to announce that it will no longer breed orcas, a David-and-Goliath battle whose outcome was far from certain.
Regardless of one’s opinion of PETA’s crusade against Ringling Bros. and SeaWorld, it would be difficult for even their fiercest opponent to ignore that it was the activist group’s attorneys’ tough legal minds that have fundamentally shifted the animal law landscape in this country.
Credit: ALM
