Animal Law Program Director
Angela Fernandez is a Professor and in-coming Director of the Animal Law Program at the Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto with a cross-appointment in the Department of History. Her book Pierson v. Post, the Hunt for the Fox: Law and Professionalization in American Legal Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2018) is a in-depth study of an (in)famous first possession property case involving a fox. She has co-edited several books on legal history and written numerous book chapters and articles, including “Not Quite Property, Not Quite Persons: A ‘Quasi’ Approach for Nonhuman Animals” 5 Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law (2019): 155-232. She has been organizing a monthly Working Group on Animals in the Law and Humanities since 2013, sits on the Advisory Board of the Global Journal of Animal Law, was the 2023 inaugural Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Distinguished Animal Law Scholar in the Animal Law & Policy Institute, and she has been a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics since 2018. She also oversees the production of the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights, Law & Policy’s Animal Law Digest: Canada Edition and the University of Toronto’s Animal Law Research Guide. From 2020-2023 she worked with Brooks and Animal Justice to organize the North American Animal Law Conference and the Canadian Animal Law Conference.
In addition to "Animals and the Law" (taught in the Fall of 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024), Professor Fernandez teaches Legal History. She is also the Chair of the Directed Research Program. She is interested in supervising students working on animal law and legal history topics at the JD and graduate level. Watch Professor Fernandez’s Video “Animals as Property, Quasi-Property or Quasi-Person” in the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights, Law & Policy Series “Animal Law Fundamentals”
Krystal-Anne graduated in 2020 from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, where she pursued her research interests in animal law, environmental law, and Indigenous laws and legal traditions. During this time, she was the founder and president of the University of Ottawa Animal Justice Association and was co-president of the University of Ottawa Environmental Law Students’ Association. While completing her studies, she was awarded the Newton Rowell Scholarship for academic excellence and interest in public service. She also has an undergraduate degree in criminology and anthropology from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick and a Certificate in Humane Education and Advanced Animal Legal Issues from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. Krystal-Anne worked as a summer student with Animal Justice in 2018 and East Coast Environmental Law in 2019. She was called to the Bar in Ontario in May 2021 and articled with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA). She continued to work for CELA as legal counsel and Water Policy Coordinator, Healthy Great Lakes and was awarded a TBCG Young Lawyers Mentorship Fund Award by CELA in November 2022.
Kira Berkeley held the position of Animal Law Research Associate from October 2024 to October 2025 and continues her employment with the Animal Law Program on a part-time basis. She currently serves as the Advocacy Manager for Animal Alliance of Canada and is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of AEL Advocacy, Canada’s first non-profit organization taking an intersectional approach to animal and environmental law. Kira earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law in June 2020. During her studies, she was an executive member of uOttawa’s Animal Justice Association and completed animal law internships with Animal Justice, Breder Law (Vancouver), and Gartner & Associates Animal Law (Toronto). Following her articles, Kira practiced as a solicitor at Scott Law Group, where she launched and led the firm’s animal law department.