Professor Bryant joined the UCLA Law faculty in 1988 with a concentration on Japanese law and society. Her scholarship focused on how Japanese law created and maintained vulnerability of women and numerical minorities in Japan, particularly through the lens of Japanese family law. Professor Bryant pursued a law degree after completing her doctorate in anthropology because she intended to continue with legal anthropology. However, Professor Bryant loved the Property course she took in law school and decided that joining a law faculty would enable her to teach Property while also pursuing her interest in interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching.
Professor Bryant began working on animal law in the spring of 1993. At that time there were no casebooks in the subject, and animal law was taught in only a handful of law schools. She has published on animal law and theory as well as more pragmatic subjects in animal law. In fact, all of her work, including the most theoretical, emphasizes practical applications. In 1998, Professor Bryant was the lead researcher and drafter of comprehensive shelter reform legislation in the state of California. One provision in particular—the right of rescue groups to take, rehabilitate, and rehome shelter animals slated for euthanasia—continues to have considerable importance because it gives legal standing to rescue groups seeking to improve conditions in animal shelters. Since 1998, Professor Bryant has worked on several legislative reform projects involving companion animals.
In addition to doctrinal courses, Professor Bryant directs the UCLA Dog Administrative Hearings Clinic through which students are trained to conduct actual hearings. The Clinic also works on projects through which the substantive and procedural law relevant to dog complaint hearings can be improved to result in more accurate and fair outcomes.
Professor Bryant is the Director of the UCLA Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program. Working in concert with empirical research experts, she brings her own doctoral training in empirical research methodology to bear when reviewing applications for funding on a diverse array of projects whose results can shape the direction of animal law and policy reform. She is also conducting her own empirical research on animal law issues.
Besides her research and teaching on animal law, Professor Bryant has contributed to the scholarly literature on the right to hasten one’s own death in situations of irremediable suffering. She has also written about nonprofit organizations both in animal law and in the field of aid in dying. Indeed, Professor Bryant believes that nonprofit organizations are important vehicles for social justice change in the United States, and she enjoys working with students who take her courses in nonprofit organizations.
In 2016, Professor Bryant completed a Master in Spiritual Psychology. That program brought psychology theory and applications to life through an experiential learning format. Due to that program, Professor Bryant shifted from teaching exclusively doctrinal courses to teaching a mix of doctrinal and experiential courses. She has taught a simulation course designed to teach legal counseling in the field of elder law, and the clinic she directs is also based on practical ideas she learned in that program. All of her current teaching includes some element of experiential learning.
