The Oklahoma Bar Journal March 2024

animals after providing a service, etc.), negligence ( e.g. , injury or death to an animal by a neighbor or an animal industry provider) and, recently, a complex products liability case! What is a typical day like for you? My days often start with my kids waking me before the sun is up. Each day, I have a handful of regularly scheduled meetings with my shelters. These meetings often review animals on hold by animal control, the shelter or the courts. We meet to ensure the swift disposition of animals, including sending notices or filing petitions. With our animal shelters serving so many jurisdictions, I usually have some contract, presentation or policy I’m working on and the occasional employee matter to advise on. Often, I bounce to civil litigation or criminal prosecution when I have a court appearance or pleading to work on. I also teach business and animal law, depend ing on the semester, so I will have a lecture to prepare or a writing assignment to grade. In between all this, inevitably, there is an urgent matter with an animal that either needs to be seized or has been seized for cruelty or an ani mal bite or urgent animal release questions that come my way. I also work on housing issues in my community, so each day, I either have a meeting, prepare for a meeting, advise on a case or work on some aspect of a strategic plan for pets and people in housing matters. It can be difficult shifting practice areas minute by minute, but my workdays are never boring, and each and every day is reward ing. I absolutely love what I do.

Charis L. Ward and her dog, Gidget

for me, and eventually, I decided I wanted to go to law school to change these ordinances and laws. Fortunately, Oklahoma has a state statute that preempts local govern ments from enacting and regulat ing dogs based on breed. What is the best/most challenging aspect of practicing animal law? The most challenging aspect of practicing animal law is that there often isn’t solid case law on point with a question of law that we have. This means often pull ing cases from the East or West Coast, reaching to other forms of personal property to compare an animal to (like a wedding ring or car) and urging judges to create new laws on these cases of first

What led you to establish a law firm with an emphasis on animal law matters? I grew up in a household of adopted dogs. During the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, my best friend and I traveled down south, where we volunteered with the animals found and helped reunite them with their families. One little dog wasn’t reunited and came back to Kansas with me. One day, an animal control officer showed up at my door and declared she looked too much like a “pit bull.” I wasn’t familiar with breed-specific legislation, but work ing at a law firm, I was certain an ordinance that prohibited you from owning a dog based solely on the way it looks wasn’t constitutional. This became an area of advocacy

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL