Megan Senatori

Adjunct Professor

Biography

Megan A. Senatori is a partner at the law firm of DeWitt Ross & Stevens, S.C., where she concentrates her practice on complex civil litigation and appellate advocacy (www.dewittross.com).   She is an alumni of the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she graduated, cum laude, in December 2001.

Since 2003, Ms. Senatori has taught a seminar course in animal law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.  The course addresses the wide range of legal issues relating to animal protection as students debate the difficult moral, ethical, and public policy considerations germane to efforts to balance the interests of animals and those of humans.     She also serves as the faculty advisor to the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. 

Despite the demands of private practice, Ms. Senatori devotes a portion of her practice to cases that advance the protection of animals in the legal system.  She has recently filed an amicus curiae brief in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Animal Legal Defense Fund, urging the Court to consider the important relationship between the plaintiffs and their companion dogs in deciding the constitutionality of Denver's pit bull breed ban.  In June 2009, Ms. Senatori filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of a group of 45 animal law professors from over 50 law schools in the Stevens case, urging the Court to recognize the prevention of animal cruelty as a compelling governmental interest.  

In 2001, she co-founded the SAAV Program, Inc. ("Sheltering Animals of Abuse Victims)", a 501(c)(3) all volunteer organization that provides confidential temporary shelter to the animal companions of domestic abuse victims fleeing abuse (www.saavprogram.org).   The SAAV Program is made possible through a collaboration of Domestic Abuse Intervention Services and the Dane County Humane Society.  Ms. Senatori serves as President for the SAAV Program.

Since 2006, the national publication Law & Politics has annually recognized Ms. Senatori as a Rising Star.  In 2008, Wisconsin Law Journal honored her with its first Rising Star award, an annual award given to only one recipient in the State in recognition of outstanding contributions to the practice of law, including: leadership in advancing legal services to the poor, important contributions to Wisconsin's legal community and important contributions to the community at large.

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Teaching Areas

  • Animal Law
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