JANE MCBRIDE

Illinois Representative

Jane McBride is an attorney, recently retired after 24 years with the Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Jane has a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology and a Bachelor’s in Agricultural Journalism, both from Iowa State University. Her first endeavor in her working career was with a small daily newspaper in north-central Wisconsin – Shawano, located between Green Bay and Wausau – where she served as both the outdoor editor and the farm editor as well as a feature writer, general reporter, and photographer. Northcentral Wisconsin is rich in outdoor recreation and natural resource industries and is one of the top 10 dairy production counties in the state. She wrote and edited both a weekly outdoor page and weekly farm pages.

While still in Wisconsin, just prior to starting law school, Jane volunteered with the Wisconsin Humane Society’s wildlife rehabilitation center for about a year and a half, covering a weekly Sunday afternoon shift. This is work she enjoyed a great deal, and she seemed to have a knack with some of the more finicky creatures.

Jane graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law with a Certificate in Energy and Environmental Law. She joined the Illinois Attorney General’s Office in January of 1997.  From the start, the majority of her caseload concerned agricultural operations of all kinds, including livestock operations. These matters concerned both water pollution and odor air pollution. The priority in these matters was always to get the facility (be it an agricultural chemical facility or crop or livestock production facility) into compliance. This work entailed a depth of knowledge in all things agriculture.  Jane also handled natural resource matters, including obtaining settlement between the state and the local drainage district for the preservation of the Cache wetlands in far southern Illinois, as well as state natural resource damage claims for the destruction of freshwater mussels due to livestock operation releases. These cases were the first in the history of the state brought for recovery for mussels (representing a recovery for death to aquatic life above the fish kill).

Jane has long served as Continuing Legal Education chairperson for both the Animal Law Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) and the Environmental Law Section of the ISBA. She and another member of the Bar, a young attorney, founded ISBA’s Food Law Section which has now been in existence for a couple of years. She also serves as a member of the ISBA’s Assembly. She is on the Advisory Board of the Illinois State Water Survery. Jane is a founder of and principal in Illinois Humane. The focus of the organization is cruelty and neglect investigations of companion animals, including horses, and the recovery and rehabilitation of the animal victims in these cases. The organization also is heavily involved in advocacy, including state legislation. Jane served as chair of the American Bar Association’s TIPS Animal Law Committee in 2018-2019. She is also licensed in Wisconsin and she is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Relevant presentations

Chicago Bar Association, February 19, 2017, Illinois Bobcats: An Update;

Illinois State Bar Association, June 2015, Annual Animal Law Conference, Illinois Bobcat Legislation.

Natural resources publications

Despite Opposition, General Assembly Passes Law Allowing Bobcat Hunting in Illinois, September 2015, “Animal Law”, the newsletter of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Section on Animal Law;

Ecology-Based Habitat Management: Letting the Birds Dictate the Planning Unit, Spring 2013, “NR&E (Landscape Protection issue)”, quarterly publication of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER);

States Enact Ban to Combat International Shark Finning, August 2012, SEER Endangered Species/International Committees Joint Newsletter, American Bar Association.