ABOUT
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Pamela Vesilind attributes her early fascination with animals to Captain Kangaroo and kindergarten at Chapel Hill’s Storybook Farm. Decades later, she put this fascination to work by joining the expanding ranks of attorneys and academics tenaciously transforming the way animals are treated under the law.
Pamela holds a J.D. (cum laude) from Vermont Law School and an LL.M. in Agricultural & Food Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law. At VLS, Pamela served as Deans Fellow and an assistant editor of the Vermont Law Review, and represented VLS on the National Moot Court team and the Animal Law Society Moot Court and Legislative Drafting & Lobbying teams. She interned with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the Southern Environmental Law Center, and externed for the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. After graduation, she clerked for the Superior Court in Burlington, VT. |
In 2009, Pamela joined the Vermont Law School faculty as assistant professor and assistant director of the Academic Success Program. In addition to teaching property law and professional responsibility, she designed the first semester-long course in animal law. After obtaining her LL.M. in 2012, she remained at the University of Arkansas as a visiting assistant professor, teaching pre-trial civil documents in animal law, environmental law, and remedies.
As a practicing attorney, she teaches on an adjunct basis in residential and distance (online) platforms. Current and previous course offerings include: The Law of Animals in Agriculture (Vermont Law summer program), Farmed Animal Welfare, Rangelands Management & Grazing Law, Global Food Security & Social Justice, Environmental Law, and Natural Resources Law.
Pamela has published extensively in academic and trade journals, and is a frequent presenter at conferences and symposiums nationwide. Her scholarship has explored the intersections of animal law and food law with constitutional principles under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and possibilities for reforming state and federal anti-cruelty laws.
Licensed to practice in North Carolina and Vermont, Pamela is a pro bono attorney member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), a District Leader for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and a volunteer with the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in Durham, NC. She is tremendously proud of her former students, many of whom have put their legal skills to work improving conditions for animals—at ALDF, the ASPCA, the HSUS, the Non-Human Animal Rights Project, Mercy for Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and in private practice across the country.
Pamela lives in Chapel Hill with her partner Brad, cats Peanut and Little Man, and dog Tallulah.
As a practicing attorney, she teaches on an adjunct basis in residential and distance (online) platforms. Current and previous course offerings include: The Law of Animals in Agriculture (Vermont Law summer program), Farmed Animal Welfare, Rangelands Management & Grazing Law, Global Food Security & Social Justice, Environmental Law, and Natural Resources Law.
Pamela has published extensively in academic and trade journals, and is a frequent presenter at conferences and symposiums nationwide. Her scholarship has explored the intersections of animal law and food law with constitutional principles under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and possibilities for reforming state and federal anti-cruelty laws.
Licensed to practice in North Carolina and Vermont, Pamela is a pro bono attorney member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), a District Leader for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and a volunteer with the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in Durham, NC. She is tremendously proud of her former students, many of whom have put their legal skills to work improving conditions for animals—at ALDF, the ASPCA, the HSUS, the Non-Human Animal Rights Project, Mercy for Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and in private practice across the country.
Pamela lives in Chapel Hill with her partner Brad, cats Peanut and Little Man, and dog Tallulah.