Animal-loving solicitors have been invited to join forces in a focus group aimed at promoting animal rights.

The Association of Lawyers for Animal Welfare (ALAW) plans to pioneer a better legal framework for animals and ensure that existing laws are applied properly by taking on test cases. It will lobby Parliament and provide training and other methods of exchanging information for members, including a journal and a Web site (www.alaw.org.uk).


The association's executive committee includes David Thomas, a consultant at London firm Bindman & Partners, who is also chairman of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Fellow solicitor member Andrew Lutley, sole principal at Surrey firm AJ Lutley, said the organisation had been 'trundling along' unofficially for years for but was now open to all lawyers who feel passionately about animal welfare. 'We want to incorporate it and put it on a formal footing,' he explained.


ALAW will be officially launched at a seminar at London's Doughty Street Chambers on 27 June; for more information contact co-ordinator Anne Wignall, tel: 01691 622 444.