Legal Vocation Fellowship Field Notes: Winter/Spring 2024 Updates
Legal Vocation Fellowship Welcomes Second Cohort and Prepares for Phase II
We’re thrilled to announce that the Legal Vocation Fellowship has officially launched its second cohort! Building on the success of our inaugural group of fellows, this next cohort brings together early-career Christian lawyers committed to exploring deeper questions of meaning, purpose, and service in their legal careers.
Meet Our Second Cohort
Our second cohort features 30 fellows spanning across seven regions - Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. The cohort represents a wide range of legal careers, including fellows employed as law firm associates, non-profit attorneys, in-house counsel, government attorneys, and judicial clerks. This year’s fellows attended 21 different law schools and range from 6 months to 6 years of practice. We are so excited to welcome these fellows to our LVF network.
Our second cohort also features talented and experienced mentors who will help guide the fellows through this process of discernment and growth. We celebrate the return of 13 mentors from our inaugural cohort and welcome 14 new mentors to our community. We are grateful for the many wonderful practitioners whose service and mentorship makes LVF possible.
Starting Phase I and Preparing for Phase II
We are currently in Phase I of our program, which provides an overview of law in the Christian tradition and its Biblical foundations. Our readings pull from authors including Robert Cochran, Stanley Hauerwas, Heinrich Rommen, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jennifer Koh. This phase provides a foundation for our fellows, rooted in scripture and tradition. It also helps prepare our fellows for the discussions and training they’ll encounter in Phase II.
During Phase II, our fellows will gather in St. Louis for four days of learning, community, and discipleship. Phase II will feature seminars from our faculty, a keynote presentation from International Justice Mission’s CEO and founder Gary Haugen, and time for reflection and relationship building.
Through educational training, targeted workshops, and vocational discernment, Phase II explores how fellows can integrate their Christian calling with the practice of law. If you’re a friend of the Legal Vocation Fellowship and you find yourself in the St. Louis area between April 30th and May 3rd please reach out—we’d love to have you join us for some of our public events!
What’s Next?
Over the coming months, we’ll share more updates on the growth of our community and the exciting opportunities ahead for our fellows. We’ll begin recruiting soon for our third cohort, which we hope to launch in January 2027. To that end, please let us know if you think you or someone you know would be a good fit for LVF by emailing contact@legalvocation.org. Otherwise and until then, we ask for your continued prayers as we work with our new cohort to live Christ in the daily practice of law.
If you would like to financially support the work that we are doing at LVF, you can donate online at the button below.
In Other News
LVF also partnered last fall with WashU’s Weidenbaum Center, WashU Law’s Public Interest and Policy Speaker Series, the Carver Project, and One Family Church to bring Ben Spencer and Barbara Bradley Hagerty to come speak in St. Louis at our event Out of the Darkness/ Into the Light. Ben was wrongfully imprisoned under a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. Barb, a journalist and author - has recently written a book chronicling his journey, his faith, and the ways people fought to seek justice and set him free. Together, Barb and Ben shared this remarkable story of faith, justice and redemption. You can watch a recording of the WashU event here, and the One Family Church event here. You can also learn more about Ben’s story in Barb’s book, “Bringing Ben Home.”