Legal Vocation Fellowship Field Notes: Spring 2024 Update
Celebrating our first cohort and looking forward to the next
We launched the Legal Vocation Fellowship last year with the goal of changing the way Christians approach and engage with legal practice. We focus on Christian formation and discipleship of early-career attorneys, guided by core commitments to a Gospel that transcends political lines, intergenerational relationships that share wisdom and experience, and a multiethnic and ecumenical witness that draws from across the Christian community.
As we wrap up our first cohort, we begin providing occasional updates via Substack. In this first installment, we’ll recap our strategy, share highlights from our first cohort, and announce plans for our second cohort.
Our Strategy
Our program focuses on 4:4 mentoring: four mentors (10+ years of practice experience) and four fellows (2-5 years of practice experience) meet together in each of our regions over the course of fifteen months.
Our first cohort includes five regions: Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. We were delighted to welcome nineteen fellows and nineteen mentors across these five regions.
The program consists of four phases that include advance readings, written reflections, teaching, and discussion:
Phase I is taught by LVF Faculty over Zoom, and each meeting is followed by in-person regional cohort discussions led by regional mentors.
Phase II brings the regional cohorts together for an intensive, in-person training led by LVF faculty. This in-person time includes instructional sessions, worship and reflection, and social time. Our first Phase II gathering included a public dialogue with Ruth Okediji (Harvard), David Skeel (Penn), and Lisa Schiltz (St. Thomas), moderated by Rick Garnett (Notre Dame). You can read a summary of that dialogue here.
Phase III includes monthly instruction from nine guest speakers over Zoom, followed by in-person regional cohort discussions led by regional mentors.
Phase IV brings the regional cohorts together again for a final reunion and commissioning. This April, our fellows will join a number of our mentors and core faculty in Chicago as we bring our inaugural cohort to a close with a time for reflection and commissioning for the work ahead.
Our Second Cohort
We are excited to announce that our second cohort will begin in early 2025. In addition to our five current regions, we hope to add four additional regions: Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York City. If you know of any potential fellows or mentors in any of our current or future regions, please email us at lvf@carverstl.org.
Reflections from our Inaugural Cohort
As we look back on the first cohort and ahead to the next, we want to share a few comments from our first class of fellows about their experience so far in the Legal Vocation Fellowship:
“My faith has been deepened and I have been provoked to think more about how I can practically demonstrate Christ’s love to those around me as a lawyer.”
“I’ve been convicted to use my legal skills to serve others in non-legal roles—in my church, neighborhood, and community. And I have a renewed desire to better adopt counter-liturgies like sabbath rest.”
“I feel a lot more hope about my profession. It’s so common amongst my peers to have a sort of ‘grind-your-teeth-until-it’s- over’ attitude, and I have a lot of personal fear about the pressures of private practice hurting my faith or family. But this experience has made me feel a lot of hope about the ways I can experience and represent Christ’s redeeming presence in this world regardless of where He places me for His purposes.”
“I have discovered a community of Christian lawyers who I can learn from and reach out to.”
“Thus far in my career, I have thought of my work as an attorney simply in the terms of a job. It is the mode with which I feed my family and pay the bills. Now, I feel challenged to think of it more deeply, as a vocation that I have been intentionally called into.”
Our Supporters
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has made possible the Legal Vocation Fellowship, including our faculty, mentors, fellows, donors, and institutional partners. Special thanks to our current and past law student staff: Alice Gorman, Maisie Greene, Katy Schmidt, and AnneMarie Underwood.
If you are not in one of our current or future regions, we would still love for you to join our national steering committee. We envision this group meeting quarterly over Zoom to learn updates about and pray for The Legal Vocation Fellowship. Please contact us at at lvf.carverstl.org if you’d like to join our steering committee.
To learn more about the Legal Vocation Fellowship or to give online, please visit our website at lvf.carverstl.org.