Areas of Practice

When marriages, partnerships, and households dissolve, the question of who keeps the dog is rarely simple. Most courts still treat pets as property. A growing minority — guided in part by Richard's case work — treat them as something closer to dependents.

We build custody arguments around bonded relationships, primary caregiving, financial responsibility, and the welfare of the animal — the same lens family courts use for children.

Most estate plans treat animals as an afterthought — a single line in a will that names a friend and assumes everything will work out. It rarely does. Richard builds estate plans where the animals are first-class beneficiaries, fully integrated into the will, the trust, and the powers of attorney.

We coordinate guardian designations, healthcare directives for the human, care directives for the animals, and the financial mechanisms that keep the plan working long after probate closes.

Animal law is the umbrella over everything else we do. It is also a body of precedent Richard has personally helped build. From the original Lexus matter to wrongful-death suits over dogs shot by police, his work has pushed courts to recognize animals as more than property.

If your matter doesn't fit a traditional category — a civil-rights claim, a wrongful death, a novel constitutional question — this is where it lives. The cases other lawyers won't take, taken seriously.