Winner: Top 25 Most Influential Lawyer in Canada 2019

Canadian Lawyer received a deluge of nominations for animal rights lawyers. Rebeka Breder rose to the top of the list and won the Changemakers category. The emerging practice specialty involves helping clients with pet custody, dog bites and “dangerous,” “vicious” or “aggressive” dog designations. For recent action on the animal protection front, Breder is acting for the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition’s lawsuit against the federal government for the overcrowding of horses while they are being transported for slaughter.

Founder, Breder Law, Vancouver

Rebeka Breder’s passion for animal protection started at an early age. She is now a trailblazer in developing animal law in Canada and is one of the very few lawyers in the country to have an exclusive animal law private practice, and the first of it's kind in B.C..

In the last 18 months, Breder has taken on a ground-breaking case for the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition in which it is suing the Canadian federal government over the way it transports horses for slaughter; it is the first time an animal protection group has sued the government over the transportation of animals in Canada. She has also co-organized the first Canadian CBA/ABA animal law conference, where speakers and guests from across Canada and the U.S. attended. In that same time, Breder has given more than a dozen animal law lectures internationally. Breder is also a founder of the UBC Animal Law course, for which she was previously an adjunct professor. She also founded the first animal law section of the Canadian Bar Association in Canada and is the founder and current chairwoman of the animal law section, B.C. Branch.

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