Jonathan Lovvorn Lecturer on Law
Mr. Lovvorn was a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School who taught our Wildlife Law course in the fall of 2018, 2016, and 2015, and our inaugural course in Farmed Animal Law & Policy in the fall of 2017.
In addition to teaching at Harvard, Mr. Lovvorn has taught Animal Law and Wildlife Law at a number of other law schools, including New York University, Georgetown, George Washington University, and most recently Yale. He also has authored several articles concerning animal law and environmental policy, most recently publishing Climate Change Beyond Environmentalism in the Georgetown Environmental Law Review, which focuses on the intersectional threats of climate change to animals, people, and the environment.
Mr. Lovvorn currently serves as Senior Vice President & Chief Counsel for the Humane Society of the United States, where he founded and manages the nation’s largest animal protection litigation program. He has argued dozens of successful cases on behalf of both animals and the environment, authored or co-authored hundreds of state and federal animal protection reform laws, and served as the primary legal strategist for most of the major animal protection ballot measures enacted over the last 15 years.
At the Humane Society, Mr. Lovvorn has supervised a legal team of dozens of in-house and pro bono attorneys prosecuting more than 40 cases a year. During his tenure, the program has filed more than 150 legal actions, attained over 100 favorable rulings, and won millions of dollars in judgments and attorneys’ fees. The Humane Society legal team also pioneered the use of class action litigation on behalf of animals, secured new federal regulations halting invasive research on chimpanzees, and set a record for the largest court judgment for animal abuse in U.S. history: $155,000,000 levied against the owners of a California slaughterhouse.
Mr. Lovvorn has presented dozens of lectures on animal law and policy at law firms, schools, and nonprofits around the country, and his legal work has been featured by CNN, NPR, The Today Show, American Lawyer, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, National Law Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Times, and other media outlets.
Mr. Lovvorn holds a J.D. from University of California Hastings College of the Law, and an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.
