The Chair's Message: Religious Conviction Strengthening the Law: The Example of President James E. Faust

By Matt Squires, Chair, Student Chapters International Board, at New York University Law School

Just a few nights ago, I had my first experience as a litigant in court. Since I am a third-year law student, I figured what better time than now to join the ranks of small-claim claimants and enforce justice upon shady taxi cab companies that refuse to pay for accidents they cause. After my first of likely many appearances in the Brooklyn small-claims court, however, I’m not sure I have the kind of time it will take, even as a 3L. In an unexpectedly candid conversation, the attorney hired by the cab company made his strategy clear to me: delay, delay, delay, then lose. It comforted me just a little to know that the cab company’s attorney was ripping them off, except for the fact that I was being ripped off even more.

Sitting there hearing other claims, I realized that, like mine, very few involved any kind of real controversy. A majority of defendants defaulted. Many of those that did show up petitioned for a second or third adjournment—putting off their reckoning as long as possible. I know that “tactics” are a familiar part of most litigation, but it must be disheartening for the judges and clerks of that court to be constantly reminded that so many are willing to sell out their integrity for the price of a small claim. The experience made me reconsider the role I hope my values will play as I enter the legal profession and recognize how much I admire successful attorneys within the ranks of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society who have maintained their religious convictions.

The recent passing of President James E. Faust [second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] gives us all an opportunity as aspiring lawyers to consider how a lawyer’s personal religious conviction can influence his or her practice. Especially in terms of his personal integrity and his lifelong dedication to service, President Faust was a role model whose example and teachings show us how to infuse our academic and professional lives with the principles of righteousness. Referring to honesty as a “moral compass,” President Faust recognized that the pressures of secular learning tempt many to compromise their integrity in order to compete against others. “In reality, we are only in competition with ourselves. Others can challenge and motivate us, but we must reach down deep into our souls and call forth our God-given intelligence and capabilities. . . . We may deceive others, but there is One we will never deceive.”1

It seems like many in the world today operate as if stealing, cheating, and lying is only wrong if they get caught, and even then only if they are liable, which is not often.2 In a J. Reuben Clark Law Society annual fireside, President Faust remarked:

The philosophy that what is legal is also right will rob us of what is highest and best in our nature. What conduct is actually legal is, in many instances, way below the standards of a civilized society and light years below the teachings of the Christ. If you accept what is legal as your standard of personal or professional conduct, you will deny yourself of that which is truly noble in your personal dignity and worth. . . . [T]here is a higher standard of conduct expected of the . . . members of this Law Society.3

Perhaps even more pernicious a threat to our integrity than academic dishonesty or other blatant dishonesty, students and young professionals with religious convictions often find themselves called upon by peers or those in positions of authority to compromise their beliefs in word, if not in deed. As a young man, President Faust faced a barrage of belief-centered questions by his superior officers in an officer’s candidacy interview, which he knew he needed to pass to provide for a family:

“Do you smoke?” “Do you drink?” “What do you think of others who smoke and drink?” . . . “Do you pray?” “Do you believe that an officer should pray?” The officer asking these questions was a hard-bitten career soldier. He did not look like he prayed very often. I pondered. Would I give him offense if I answered how I truly believed? I wanted to be an officer very much so that I would not have to do all-night guard duty and KP and clean latrines, but mostly so my sweetheart and I could afford to be married.

I decided not to equivocate. I admitted that I did pray and that I felt that officers might seek divine guidance as some truly great generals had done. I told them that I thought that officers should be prepared to lead their men in all appropriate activities, if the occasion requires, including prayer.

More interesting questions came. “In times of war, should not the moral code be relaxed? Does not the stress of battle justify men in doing things that they would not do when at home under normal situations?”

I recognized that here was a chance perhaps to make some points and look broad-minded. I suspected that the men who were asking me this question did not live by the standards that I had been taught. The thought flashed through my mind that perhaps I could say that I had my own beliefs, but I did not wish to impose them on others. But there seemed to flash before my mind the faces of the many people to whom I had taught the law of chastity as a missionary. In the end I simply said, “I do not believe there is a double standard of morality.”

He passed the interview and was admitted to officer’s candidacy school but later recognized the event as “one of the critical crossroads of [his] life.”4

As aspiring lawyers, there is much that we can glean from President Faust and other church leaders who have served time in the legal profession about the strength religious conviction brings to the law. There are also many attorneys in the ranks of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society who have successfully tempered their legal careers with integrity and religious conviction. However, we would be able to learn nothing from their experiences and testimonies were they not willing to serve as mentors and role models to those that look eagerly to them for counsel and support. One of the great blessings the J. Reuben Clark Law Society can provide is a robust infrastructure of faith-based support that trickles down from experienced attorneys to less experienced attorneys to students to younger students, but this infrastructure itself requires religious conviction.

Many first-year law students share the experience of being overwhelmed and unsure as they navigate their first few months of law school. In my second week, I was surprised and emboldened when I received a ten-gallon box full of study guides and a CD of outlines from an old friend from my hometown who had recently graduated from law school in another state. My friend’s advice and willingness to mentor me, along with the almost immediate friendship of a group of JRCLS 3Ls, made my academic transition into law school easier, helped me prepare to maintain my integrity in situations I would face, but also strengthened my testimony of the love of serving others that is so central to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know as a junior associate I will face similar uncertainties and moral challenges and be dependant, again, on attorneys of religious conviction for faith-based mentoring.

It can be difficult as busy law students and especially as young associates to find time to mentor and serve those in need of advice and encouragement. By neglecting to take the time, however, we can miss perhaps the greatest opportunity the J. Reuben Clark Law Society offers to “affirm the strength brought to the law by a lawyer’s religious conviction” for what is ultimately the price of a small claim. As President Faust remarked, “We need to bring our sacred religious convictions and standards to the practice of law. To do otherwise would bring an inconsistency to our character. There always needs to be a connection between having an involvement in the law and living the gospel.” If “living the gospel” means that it is a part of our character to be in service of others, and “having an involvement in the law” includes our interrelationships in the legal profession, I hope we as law students can be anxiously engaged mentoring each other and strengthening our integrity and religious conviction. Further, I hope that as we graduate and enter the harried world of legal practice we will be willing, as was President Faust, to serve and share our experience and counsel with rising generations of lawyers and law students striving to maintain their “moral compasses” in a profession where integrity is often both cheap and rare.