Matthew Liebman ’06 always had a passion for animals, which would eventually lead him to become the youngest staff attorney at the national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). This passion grew at Stanford Law School, where Matthew co-founded and led the Stanford chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, which significantly raised the profile of animal law on campus. Matthew is now an ALDF staff attorney, where he focuses on brainstorming new ways to sue animal abusers, decrease institutionalized cruelty, and make the law recognize the interests of animals. Matthew has managed cases including ALDF v. Conyers, which resulted in the rescue of more than 100 dogs from a North Carolina hoarder; ALDF v. Keating, in which seven horses were saved from starvation; and Penrod v. Robertson County, in which ALDF helped to establish a new shelter for homeless dogs and cats in Kentucky.

“ALDF’s work is important on so many levels,” Matthew says. “Not only are we concerned with the necessary short-term work of using existing laws to fight animal suffering and exploitation, but we are also constantly evaluating how we can achieve the long-term goal of transforming the legal system to account for the interests of animals.” Matthew’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Animal Law, the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, and the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center. He is currently co-authoring a book on comparative and international animal law.