Director and Clinical Professor, Animal Law Clinic

• Animal Law Clinic
• Animal Law
• Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS)

LL.M., 1997, Georgetown University Law Center
J.D., 1987, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary
B.A., 1985, George Washington University

Katherine Hessler received her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in 1987. She also holds a B.A. from George Washington University from 1985. Professor Hessler has taught in Civil, Family, Mediation, Housing, Consumer, Social Security, and Community Development Clinics. She has also taught Animal Law, Mediation, and Focused Problem Solving.

Professor Hessler joins the Lewis and Clark faculty after teaching in the legal clinics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Cornell Law School, the University of Dayton, and Capital University. She is the immediate past Co-Chair of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education, Chair of the AALS Animal Law Section, and Chair-Elect of the Balance in Legal Education Section and on the board for the pending. She has served as a consultant to the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation, and is active in movements relating to clinical legal education, appropriate dispute resolution, peace and nonviolence, and animal rights. Professor Hessler also taught as a fellow at the Center for Applied Legal Studies at the Georgetown University Law Center, and taught classes on nonviolence at Georgetown and at the University of Maryland. Prior to beginning her academic career, she was a staff attorney at Legal Services of Northern Virginia.

Professor Hessler's scholarly writing has focused on animal law, the suppression of free speech, clinical legal education, and mediation. Her speaking engagements have focused on clinical legal education, animal law, and the legal implications of protest. In addition, she has experience as a mediator and has taught a mediation practicum, a mediation clinic, and an alternative dispute resolution course. Professor Hessler was the Associate Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution Case Law School. She serves on the board of the Center for Teaching Peace, and is a founding board member of the Cleveland Summer Legal Academy.