Hira Jaleel is a lawyer from Pakistan specializing in animal law at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. She received her B.A-LL. B (Hons.) from the Lahore University of Management Sciences and her LLM in Animal Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Animal Law LLM Leadership Award. Hira previously worked as a senior associate at Axis Law Chambers – a full service corporate and commercial law firm in Lahore, Pakistan. As part of her practice, she regularly advised clients on animal-related legal issues, including issuing advice on the legal rights of clients threatened with eviction and seizure of their companion animals by housing authorities, advising on the prosecution of animal abuse cases, and assisting animal welfare nonprofits regarding registration and regulatory compliance issues.
Hira has also extensively litigated on behalf of animals in Pakistan. Hira was co-counsel in a case before the Honourable Lahore High Court against indiscriminate culling of street dogs by state authorities. The case ultimately resulted in the formulation of a provincial dog birth control policy, which ended the barbaric practice of culling dogs and replaced culling with a province-wide trap neuter vaccinate release program. She was also appointed amicus curiae by the Lahore High Court in a case regarding wild animal welfare, in which the petitioners sought to ban the possession of wild animals as exotic pets by individuals. Additionally, Hira was appointed amicus curiae in a case challenging the Punjab Wildlife Department’s ban on the use of electronic decoys in hunting. In a win for wild animals, the ban was ultimately upheld by the Lahore High Court.
As part of her work, Hira has worked with all four provincial governments in Pakistan to update their animal welfare legislation. Hira has also been a consultant for Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of National Food Security & Research and has worked on a new Federal Animal Health Bill for Pakistan in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Hira was a recipient of the CALS Global Ambassador Program (GAP) grant for the year 2021-2022. As part of her GAP project, Hira successfully designed and taught Pakistan’s first ever animal law course at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Spring 2022.