Members who inspire. Making Waves

• Author: Amanda Robert
• Pages: 60-62

MEMBERS WHO INSPIRE

Making

Waves

Attorney has worked for 30 years

to improve well-being of animals

BY AMANDA ROBERT

James F. Gesualdi was only a year

into his practice of law in 1989

when a trip to a dolphin sanc-

tuary changed the course of his

career—and his entire life.

Gesualdi’s mother, knowing of his

fascination with dolphins, showed

him information about the Dolphin

Research Center in the Florida Keys .

A group was about to take a weeklong

visit to the center, and he asked if he

could join them—even though it turned

out to be a group of cancer patients and

survivors. They agreed.

As the only male and only person

who wasn’t a family member, he says

the group taught him “what strength,

courage and dignity were all about and

put the so-called stresses of a young

lawyer in perspective.”

Gesualdi also met Little Bit, one of

the dolphins who starred in the televi-

sion series Flipper , which he loved as

a child. He was moved by her beauty

and grace and remembers that all he

wanted to do was sit on the shoreline

and watch her.

“I absolutely fell in love with her,” he

says. “She inspired me, and that was for

me a very transformative experience.

That’s what started me on my animal

law practice.”

ABA Insider edited by

LEE RAWLES

lee.rawles@americanbar.org

Members Who Inspire is an ABA Journal series prof‌i ling exceptional ABA members. If you know members who do unique and important work,

you can nominate them for this series by emailing inspire@abajournal.com.

Photo courtesy of James F. Gesualdi

James F. Gesualdi:

“The practice of ani-

mal law, like life itself,

is all about raising

consciousness.”

ABA JOURNAL | JUNE–JULY 2020

60