Our Vision
Our vision is a growing nationwide fellowship of Christian lawyers and law students who act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
~ Micah 6:8 ~
Our Mission
Our mission is to inspire, encourage, and equip Christians, both individually and in community, to proclaim, love and serve Jesus Christ through the study and practice of law, the provision of legal assistance to the poor and needy, and the defense of religious freedom and the sanctity of human life.
About Attorney Ministries
Christian Legal Society’s (CLS) Attorney Ministries seeks to encourage and train legal professionals on how to integrate the Word of God and their faith in Jesus Christ into their professional and personal lives.
CLS is comprised of legal professionals dedicated to serving Jesus Christ through the practice of law and members include attorneys, judges, paralegals, and friends of the legal profession.
Attorney Ministries is the foundation of all of CLS’ ministries – we serve on law school campuses, provide legal help to the poor and needy, and work to defend religious freedom and the protection of human life.
Attorney Chapters, located throughout the country, provide attorneys with a wide range of opportunities, including fellowship and spiritual development, discipleship, legal referrals, legal best practices, CLE training, and mentoring law students.
Faith inspires action and CLS attorneys are encouraged to lead or start a chapter and thereby guide, encourage, and support other Christian attorneys in the practice of law while finding unique ways to serve The Lord though their vocation.
Professor Elton Trueblood called it the “Strategy of Jesus.” This strategy, as set forth by Professor Trueblood, well describes the kind of “society” CLS aspires to be:
"What we need is not intellectual theorizing or even preaching, but a demonstration. One of the most powerful ways of turning people’s loyalty to Christ is by loving others with the great love of God. We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be forced to respect it. If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without artificiality and free from the dead hand of the past, it would be an exciting event of momentous importance. A society of genuine loving friends, set free from the self-seeking struggle for personal prestige and from all unreality, would be something unutterably priceless and powerful. A wise person would travel any distance to join it."
If you seek such a society, you are cordially invited to join CLS.
In the memorable words of former Chaplain of the Senate, Dick Halverson, we believe that each member of this Society can be like “a garment which Jesus Christ wears every day to do what Jesus wants to do” with his or her life. Seen from this perspective, “we don’t need power; our weakness is an asset. If Christ is truly in each of us as we all have confessed, then what more do we need to follow Him?” And so, as we move forward, we are committed to following the example of servant-leadership Jesus has modeled for us. We are also committed to following in the footsteps of St. Paul, the first member of the “Christian Legal Society.” St. Paul (then known as Saul) was an angry lawyer on a prosecutor’s assignment to arrest the Christians in Damascus when, upon being struck blind by a vision of the glory of God, he became a follower of Jesus Christ at the invitation of one of Christ’s followers, Ananias. See Acts 9.
In this sense, the Apostle Paul became the “founding member” of the Christian Legal Society when he was cast “from his high horse”, crushed in the dust and blinded for a season. He was converted and followed his calling when Ananias told him he was to take the Gospel to “kings and princes” and that he would be persecuted for his obedience to Jesus. After his conversion, Paul spent the rest of his life helping establish and gathering together the fellowship of the followers of Jesus Christ.