| Officers and Council Members
Dena Fisher - Chair
Biography Forthcoming
Clarissa Kay Bauer - Vice Chair
Biography Forthcoming
Stacy Kelly - Treasurer
Stacy Kelly is a native Texan, received her undergraduate BS degree from the University of Texas at Austin and received her law degree at South Texas College of Law in 1998. Ms. Kelly focuses her practice on litigation concerning guardians, trustees, administrators, beneficiaries and executors of estates in addition to assisting with the administration of estates. More recently, Ms. Kelly has expanded her practice into estate planning for non-human family members, animal law and first amendment protections of animal rights protestors. She is the proud adopter of four cats, (Mondavi, Dash, Peta, Boomerang) and two dogs, (Turbo and Choctaw), all rescues.
Kelly Heitkamp - Secretary
Kelly has a successful law practice in Longview, Texas after working for several years with a series of larger firms specializing in civil defense. Kelly feels the most significant aspect of having a smaller general practice is the ability to spend more time working with local grassroots animal welfare groups. Kelly devotes considerable time and energy to Animal Law, and primarily works with non-profit, no-kill animal rescues in East Texas. A great deal of her "free" time is spent fighting "puppy mills" and apathy - both of which are HUGE burdens on the grassroots groups with whom she works. East Texas requires a great deal of "hands on" effort; therefore, volunteers are always welcome.
Bill Davis - Council Member, Place 1
Bill practices appellate law at the Office of the Solicitor General in Austin. He has published commentaries on animal law in The Federal Lawyer and the Lewis and Clark School of Law journal Animal Law. Bill was one of the presenters at the Fourth Annual Animal Law Institute hosted by the State Bar of Texas Animal Law Section. Bill graduated from Harvard Law School in 2000, where he was a student in the school's first class on animal law. He is a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Farm Sanctuary.
Susan Hightower - Council Member, Place 2
Susan Hightower is a 2000 graduate of Stanford Law School who practices intellectual property litigation in the Austin office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. An Austin native, Susan grew up in San Antonio and worked in Austin, Dallas, and Houston during her previous career as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press. Susan is a volunteer with the Texas Humane Legislation Network, a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and a supporter of several local humane organizations. She has a longstanding interest in animal issues, but gained a special focus on animal advocacy, and particularly breed-specific legislation, following her and her husband's adoption of a pit bull/Belgian Malinois mix during her second year of law school. Her nuclear family currently includes three other dogs and two cats, all rescues. Susan and David adopted their newest pup last Thanksgiving while volunteering at an animal shelter in New Orleans, where they lived in 2000-01 while Susan clerked for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Susan recently accepted an Adjunct Professor position at University of Texas Law School, teaching, of course, Animal Law.
Jeffrey Gordon - Council Member, Place 3
Jeffrey is an attorney with the Austin office of Andrews Kurth. His practice primarily involves environmental, civil and personal injury litigation. Unfortunately, Jeffrey has not had much opportunity to practice animal law. However, Jeffrey has been active in animal causes for many years, and has been a "passive" member of the Animal Law Section since it was formed. After attending this year's Animal Law Section annual meeting, Jeffrey decided to commit himself to developing an animal law practice and to becoming a more active section member. Jeffrey is particularly interested in working with other Section members to further develop the legal resources available to animal law attorneys in Texas.
Bliss Scharfenberger - Council Member, Place 4
Bliss has experience in commercial litigation and domestic violence cases. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and has contributed to The Dallas Morning News,
Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Bark magazine and other publications. In addition to writing about animal-related issues, she has volunteered with the Texas Humane Legislation Network and Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Don Feare - Council Member, Place 5
Don practices civil litigation and criminal defense in Arlington. He regularly handles a large volume of animal law cases, which are diverse in nature and include: an action against a gun club to prevent the sport shooting of pigeons; a case involving the federal cormorant killing permit issuance policy; an in-depth review of the fatal shooting of Jabari, the lowland gorilla at the Dallas Zoo; a suit against a university to stop the placement of pregnant deer in fire ant-filled pens, so that the effect on their fawns could be observed at birth; and a variety of seizure and dog bite related cases. Don is a member of the board and the legislative committee of the Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN). Don is a photographer and field contributor to Nature Photographer magazine, as well as a writer on the topics of animal law and waterfowl behavior and diseases. In addition, he speaks to civic and animal groups throughout the country. Don lives on the sanctuary he established in the late 80’s known as the Wildflight Rescue Foundation. Don is also an Adjunct Professor at Texas Wesleyan School of Law, teaching (what else?!) Animal Law.
Joel Hailey - Council Member, Place 6
Joel Hailey has a private practice of probate law in San Antonio. He has been actively involved in local animal causes as one who is sensitive to the suffering, exploitation, and abuse of animals in society. As former Chair of the Animal Law Section, Joel has continued to write articles and make presentations at the Section seminars. Joel is serving as the general coordinator of the 2007 Animal Law Institute.
Robert Trimble - Council Member, Place 7
Skip is a Dallas, Texas native. He graduated with an economics degree and a law degree from Southern Methodist University. He worked for the United States Department of Justice and the law firm of Winstead, McGuire, Sechrest & Trimble prior to entering the real estate investment business. He is currently a principal in the real estate investment firm Catlyn Capital Corp.
Skip became an animal advocate in 1992. Skip is involved in the following animal-related organizations and causes:
Board Member - Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). ALDF is a national animal advocate organization comprised of volunteer attorneys throughout the United States, as well as a paid staff in offices in Washington, D.C., Petaluma, California and Portland, Oregon. ALDF also sponsors the publication of the Animal Law Journal at Northwest School of Law of Lewis and Clark College.
Board Member and Legislative Chair - Texas Humane Legislation Network, a Texas grassroots organization whose purpose is to promote the humane treatment of animals through legislation, education and advocacy. He spearheaded this group's efforts: to create animal-friendly license plates in Texas to provide funds for low cost spay/neuter programs; to pass statewide regulation of the ownership of exotic animals such as lions, tigers, etc.; and to pass legislation to make animal cruelty punishable as a felony.
Former Board Member - Animal Protection Institute. Animal Protection Institute now owns and operates the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary (a 180 acre sanctuary to over 400 rescued snow monkeys, baboons and cervets) which Skip helped create in 1995.
He was instrumental in the formation of the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Texas; is an active member of that Section; and speaks at many of the legal seminars sponsored by that Section.
Member of the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission, an advisory board to the City of Dallas regarding animal control and the two Dallas municipal animal shelters.
He was instrumental in obtaining financial support from the City of Dallas to build a low cost spay/neuter clinic now operated by the Humane Society of the United States and is the founder and operator of Find-A-Pet, a local computerized central database to reunite lost pets with their owners in the Dallas metroplex.
Board Member of Metroplex Animal Coalition, a group of local animal welfare organizations in the Dallas metroplex area which work with the City of Dallas and surrounding cities to make the metroplex a Ano-kill@area.
He also does considerable pro bono legal work for animal groups, including formation of non-profit corporations and obtaining their tax exempt status.
Dawn Reveley - Council Member, Place 8
Dawn Reveley has practiced law for 20 years and is licensed in Texas and in Michigan. She has 12 years of complex commercial litigation experience, during which time she provided product liability defense for automotive & heavy equipment manufacturers. Dawn currently has her own practice, which she opened in October 1996. She practices business law and litigation representing small businesses, most of which are animal care providers. Dawn is one of the founding members of the Animal Law section, and she has spoken nationally on animal law & equine law issues and on the establishment of State Bar Animal Law Sections. She serves on the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners and is active in animal-related businesses and hobbies. She has bred, trained and shown horses and golden retrievers for over 30 years. All this and she still manages to raise her adorable twins, Ryan and Rachelle.
Christy Lawrence - Chair, Paralegals Committee
[biography forthcoming] |
