Hi, I’m Gheisha
I'm a licensed attorney, a proud rescue dog mom, and the founder of Safe Paws Legal Solutions, a practice built around one simple belief: your pets are family, and they deserve to be protected like it.
I created Safe Paws because for as long as I can remember, I've been paying attention to what happens to animals when humans aren't prepared. I've seen it on social media, on rescue pages, on shelter feeds I've followed for years. And I've seen it up close, a family member once discovered a dog left alone in an apartment after his owner passed away, with no plan, no caregiver named, no one coming to claim him.
These situations are heartbreaking. They're also preventable. I know how to prevent them. So I built something to help.
Se habla español. All services are available in Spanish.
Meet Grayson
Grayson is a six-year-old Australian Shepherd-Labrador mix, and he has been by my side since he was eight weeks old.
His story starts before I found him. His mother was rescued from a hoarding situation, more than 60 dogs pulled in a single rescue. She was pregnant at the time, and she gave birth to her litter that same night. A few weeks later, I found Grayson on Petfinder, brought him home, and that was that.
He is a big, beautiful black dog. And if you know anything about animal rescue, you know what that means: black dogs are statistically among the least likely to be adopted from shelters. It's a well-documented phenomenon, sometimes called Black Dog Syndrome, and researchers believe it's tied to everything from how dark-coated dogs photograph in low-light shelter settings to unconscious bias that's hard to explain but impossible to ignore in the data. Grayson got lucky. A lot of dogs who look just like him don't.
"He's the reason this work feels urgent. And the reason it feels personal."
He loves car rides and the woods, happiest on a trail with dirt under his paws and something interesting to sniff. He also has his own Instagram, because of course he does. You can follow his adventures at @inthewoodswithgrayson.
Why I Built Safe Paws
I came to animal welfare through where I grew up.
I'm from Puerto Rico, where the stray dog overpopulation crisis is one of the most severe in the world. Growing up there, street dogs weren't an abstract issue, they were part of daily life. I grew up taking them in off the street. It shaped the way I see animals: not as property, not as accessories, but as living beings who experience the world and deserve to be treated with the care that reflects that.
When I left the island that didn't change. I followed rescue organizations, shared adoptable animals on my own social media, advocated wherever I could. I still do, every day. And when shelter and rescue groups started building a presence on social media, I was there from the beginning, watching, sharing, paying attention.
What I kept seeing, year after year, was a pattern: animals ending up in shelters or rescues not because they were unloved, but because their owners weren't prepared. An illness. A death. A family in crisis with no plan and no legal framework to fall back on. And the animal, the sentient, feeling, bonded animal, paying the price for a gap that a few legal documents could have closed.
My legal background, my animal law training, my work translating complex law into plain language for people navigating hard situations, it all pointed toward the same thing.
Safe Paws is what happened when I stopped waiting for someone else to build it.
Background and Credentials
My legal career and Safe Paws aren't two separate things pulling in different directions, they're the same work showing up in different rooms.
In both, I'm doing the same thing: taking complex, often intimidating legal systems and making them navigable for people who need them most. In my primary practice, I do that for survivors of gender-based violence. At Safe Paws, I do it for pet owners who love their animals and want to protect them but don't know where to start.
I've been a licensed attorney since 2018. Here's the background that informs the work:
Animal Law
Humane World for Animals — Legal Residency in Animal Protection & Litigation (formerly Humane Society of the United States)
Animal Legal Defense Fund — Legal Clerkship in Animal Protection & Litigation
My residency and clerkship with two of the country's most prominent animal law organizations gave me a deep, practice-level understanding of how the legal system engages with animals, and where it falls short. Pet legal planning sits inside that gap.
Full Legal Background
Nonprofit law | Gender-based violence law and policy | Family law | Animal protection law and litigation
Licensed In
North Carolina | Washington, D.C.
Servicios disponibles en español.
Custom legal services are available to residents of NC and D.C. only. Digital templates are available nationwide.
What It's Like to Work With Me
I know that legal services can feel intimidating — especially when you're already navigating something emotional, like a health scare, a separation, or just the quiet worry of 'what would happen to my pet if something happened to me?'
My job is to make that easier, not harder. Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute consultation , no commitment, no pressure, just a real conversation about your pet, your situation, and what kind of protection actually makes sense for your life.
I'll explain everything in plain language. I'll ask questions and listen to the answers. And I'll draft documents that reflect your pet's real life, their name, their needs, the people who love them.
You don't need to know anything about the law to work with me. You just need to know your pet.
Ready to protect your pet?
Start with a free 30-minute consultation. We'll talk through your situation, answer your questions, and figure out the best path forward — together.