Hadley Family Foundation
The Hadley Family Foundation has generously funded three levels of Fellowships in the Animal Law Program:
JD HADLEY FAMILY FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP
Recipients:
Lisa Scholtz (JD 2026)
Lisa recently earned her Juris Doctor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. During law school, Lisa was an executive member in the Environmental Law Club and the president of the Animal Justice Club. She was the inaugural recipient of the Hadley fellowship, spending the summer after her first year of law school working at Animal Justice. Prior to law school she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Western University.
Maya Hribar (JD 2026)
Maya recently completed her third year at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Since completing a degree in Criminology, Law & Society, she has spent her summers working with a non-profit organization and legal aid clinic, helping protect vulnerable groups and working towards important law reform. Maya’s projects include advocating for reform of Ontario’s air pollution regulation regime, conducting research for local projects in Northern Ontario, and currently, helping Animal Justice in important precedent-setting litigation that can significantly impact the wellbeing and lives of animals. On her spare time, Maya enjoys playing with her extremely-energic (yet adorable) Blue Heeler, collecting mugs, and binging psychological thrillers (the best ones being from the ‘90s!).
Christine Park (JD 2028)
DOCTORAL AWARD
Recipient:
Ricardo Díaz-Alarcón (SJD Candidate)
Ricardo is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in animal law, comparative law, and legal theory, particularly the ways in which animal law intersects with the rights of nature and Indigenous legal orders.
Ricardo received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. cum laude from Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia. He was awarded a Public Interest Fellowship from Harvard Law School to work for one year at Animal Outlook. Prior to that, he worked for two years as a legal and policy adviser for the city council in Bogotá, where he worked on legal reforms related to the use of animals.
Recent Publication:
Ricardo Díaz-Alarcón, “Toward an Animal Law from the South: Why More-Than-Human Rights Flourished in Latin America” (2026) 2 Public Humanities 1.
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP IN ANIMAL LAW
Recipient:
M.H. (Man Ha) Tse
M.H. is the 2024-2026 Inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow in Animal Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She received her LL.M. from the Faculty in 2015 and her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School where she was affiliated with the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program. Her postdoctoral work builds on her S.J.D.. dissertation Domestic Predation: A Legal Architecture of Human Systems of Extractive Violence (2024) and she taught an animal law seminar at Jackman Law in the fall of 2025. M.H. is currently an Animal Law Fellow at the Animal Law and Policy Institute, Vermont Law and Graduate School.
M.H. is also the creator and director of The Museum of Human Predation, at https://the-arc.org/museum, which is part of the Animal Remembrance Commission. The mission of the Museum, which includes an online archive, pop-up exhibits, and print publications, is to preserve a material record of the human practice of domestic predation on other animals and to provide a resource for public reflection on this practice.
Testimonials
– Maya Hribar (JD 2026, JD Hadley Family Foundation Fellowship Recipient Summer 2026)Working with Animal Justice has been completely transformative. Through my time as a legal student, I helped protect vulnerable animals and promoted public awareness of the harm and exploitation they endure. You can see the real difference that Animal Justice makes in our world through the advancements it has brought in the legal protections afforded to animals. I was fortunate to be able to have been a part of this change.
My work during the summer was both intellectually and emotionally fulfilling. I got firsthand experience in a wide range of areas of law, including administrative law, criminal law, health and safety, and civil procedure, to name a few. I worked with an amazingly kind, passionate, and helpful team of lawyers who have helped me become a better legal researcher and animal advocate. Whether it was helping prepare documents for litigation, briefing the public on current issues and welfare concerns, or researching how to improve regulations, my time with Animal Justice is something I will forever be grateful for. I highly recommend this experience and opportunity - it will change the way you look at and operate in the legal industry and society at large.
– Ricardo Díaz-Alarcón (SJD Candidate)The Hadley Fellowship has given me something that has been incredibly valuable during my doctoral studies: the time and space to read deeply, think through complex problems, and develop my ideas in conversation with people who have thought about these questions for years. Having the opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with many knowledgeable scholars has helped me see my own research from different perspectives and work through questions that require the kind of sustained conversation that is hard to find elsewhere.
– M.H. Tse, Inaugural Hadley Postdoctoral Fellow in Animal Law 2024-2026Serving as the inaugural Hadley Postdoctoral Fellow in Animal Law at the University of Toronto has enriched my scholarly life immensely, and I am deeply grateful to the Hadley Family Foundation for making the fellowship possible. The fellowship gave me the freedom and support to advance my work through teaching the Faculty’s animal law seminar, The Law of Human and Animal Relations, launching my creative research practice with the Museum of Human Predation, and developing my legal monograph on domestic predation. Above all, I am honoured to have been present for the launch of the Animal Law Program — the only program of its kind in Canada and a milestone for Canadian animal law. To have helped mark that beginning, and to have done this work in the company of colleagues who share its aims, is something I will always value. My thanks to the Hadley Family Foundation and Professor Fernandez for their incredible support of the fellowship, to Kira Berkeley, Krystal-Anne Roussel, and Sooin Kim for being such wonderful partners and colleagues, and to everyone at the Faculty who made this fellowship so rewarding.
