Valerie J. Stanley is an Adjunct Professor of Animal Law at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Maryland School of Law. Valerie previously served as the senior staff attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund where she was responsible for developing and litigating cases against federal and state agencies involving statutes enacted to protect animals. Currently, Valerie practices Animal Law with an emphasis on litigation and advocacy to protect wild horses and burros as integral parts of the public lands. From 2005 through 2009, she worked as an attorney in the Baltimore City Solicitor’s Office on complex federal civil litigation, including the City’s suit against CSX, Inc. for the 2001 Howard Street Tunnel train derailment, hazardous material spill and fire, the City’s response to the issue of hazardous material transport by train through urban centers and defense of a putative class action against the Baltimore Police Department for racial discrimination in discipline, Hopson v. Mayor and City Council. Hopson is a landmark case addressing discovery of electronically stored information.
Prior to joining the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Valerie was a founding partner of the law firm of Galvin, Stanley & Hazard, which specialized in animal protection law and where she practiced general civil and criminal litigation and served as an Assistant Public Defender for Montgomery County, Maryland, handling criminal defense of indigents charged with misdemeanors and felonies. As an associate for Reasoner, Davis & Fox, Valerie practiced in the areas of trusts and estates, employment discrimination, general civil and commercial law and litigation as counsel to individual and corporate clients. Valerie was law clerk to the Honorable Thomas F. Hogan of the U.S. District Court of D.C.
Valerie graduated from Goucher College and earned her law degree at the Catholic University, where she was a member of the law review. While in law school, she was a national winner of the American Trial Lawyer’s Association Environmental Law Essay Contest. She is a frequent lecturer on the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the federal Animal Welfare Act, and on the laws governing the use of animals in experimentation. She co-authored “Animals and Their Legal Rights,” Animal Welfare Institute, 1990, is currently working on a revised edition of that book, was a contributor to the Animal Law textbook and authored Comment, Establishing Liability for the Damages from Hazardous Waste: An Alternative for Love Canal Plaintiffs, 31 Cath. Univ. L. Rev. 273 (1982).