James F. Gesualdi is an Islip, New York, solo practitioner who has practiced animal law since 1989. He has advised organizations on animal-related matters and led independent reviews to enhance animal well-being. He is the author of EXCELLENCE BEYOND COMPLIANCE: Enhancing Animal Welfare Through the Constructive Use of the Animal Welfare Act, which uses the law as a starting point to continuously improve efforts on behalf of animals. He has published numerous articles, including his decade-long column, “Getting Better All the Time,” on continuous improvement and advancing animal interests, protection, and well-being.

Mr. Gesualdi is a former Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law, where he taught Animal Law, and has lectured extensively on constructive approaches to building consensus and fostering transformative, sustainable, and ethical change to better serve animals. He served as Chair of the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee, Chair of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Animals and the Law, and was the founding Co-Chair of the Suffolk County Bar Association Animal Law Committee. He was a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s first animal law committee, the Young Lawyers’ Division Animal Protection Committee.

He is a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the New York Bar Foundation. Mr. Gesualdi was the inaugural recipient of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Animals and the Law Exemplary Service Award (2018) and a recipient of the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award (2019).