Amanda L. Elyse

Biography

Amanda L. Elyse works to provide her students with a supportive, student-centered experience in which they can thrive in learning lawyering skills, being their whole selves and developing community, and becoming passionate advocates for both individual clients and social justice causes. Her experiences with grassroots social movements inform and inspire her career in law and the relationships she builds with students. She appreciates teaching in the Legal Writing Program because of her understanding of how legal writing and oral advocacy contribute to strong advocacy and creating positive social change.

While in practice, Professor Elyse represented social justice activists in both civil and criminal cases, as well as provided legal support to political prisoners including multiple people indicted under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. She has also traveled to locations throughout the United States to provide on-the-ground legal support to communities engaged in sustained protest actions to protect land and water from being destroyed for corporate interests. Additionally, Professor Elyse has taught over a hundred legal trainings and workshops to grassroots activists and frontline communities, and she has given presentations about the relationship between the legal system and the animal liberation movement in cities throughout the United States and Europe. She has also worked at a national nonprofit animal protection organization where she dealt with violations of animal welfare laws in laboratories.

Professor Elyse’s scholarship interest centers on providing a critical lens on animal law issues, with particular attention to intersections with other social justice issues and the state repression of advocacy for animals. She has also written about topics that include how “terrorism” legislation is used against social movements, the use of the necessity defense by climate activists, how corporations use Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to chill dissent, the importance of supporting political prisoners as part of the framework of movement organizing, and about using open government laws at both the state and federal levels.

Additionally, Professor Elyse has presented at national and regional legal writing conferences and other law school events on topics that include teaching gender-inclusive language, building community and connection with students, and movement lawyering.

In addition to teaching Legal Writing classes, Professor Elyse teaches the seminar “Lawyers, Media, and Social Change” as well as an Animal Law course.