Here's a report from Meridian Magazine on the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference last month:

LDS Attorneys Gather for First J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference

by Maurine Jensen Proctor

Where in the world would you find a professional gathering of attorneys who, when they were talking about covenants and obligations, they meant the ones they owe to God? The answer is at a recent conference in Washington D.C., where more than 500 LDS lawyers and law students had signed up to meet at the Hotel Monaco and the Georgetown Law Center on Friday and Saturday, February 17 and 18, for the first J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference.

Conference chairman Lew Cramer said that, far from detracting from the long hours so often demanded by the law, "We affirm the strength brought to the law by a lawyer's personal religious conviction. We have common obligations to serve and to elevate others and to become a growing source of righteousness."

In fact, the theme of the J. Reuben Clark International Law Society is "We strive through public service and professional excellence to promote fairness and virtue, founded upon the rule of law."

If all the attorneys of the world adopted such sentiments, lawyer jokes would soon dry up, but gathered here were LDS attorneys who want to make that a reality.

The J. Reuben Clark International Law Society has 8,000 members, including 60 student chapters. Obviously, law students do not have to have attended law school at BYU to belong. In fact, according to Lew, it is surprising how many LDS students are in law schools all over the country.

Example: The law school at Creighton has 15 LDS students who belong to the J. Reuben Clark International Law Society.

In the past the LDS students have had conferences, but the LDS attorneys have only had a traditional Rex Lee Award and luncheon. The conference this year, according to Joseph Bentley, president of the group, marks the beginning of conferences that will be held every year.

Luncheon speaker was Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General of the United States.

Other speakers at the event include an all-star lineup: Elder Cree-L Kofford, Emeritus Member of the First Quorum of Seventy; Michael K. Young, President of the University of Utah; William F. Atkin, Associate General Counsel of the Church; Gene C. Schaerr (who moderated a panel on being a great advocate); Timothy E. Flanagan, formerly with the White House and now General Counsel for Tyco International; Boyd J. Black, Associate General Counsel of the Church; and D. James Gordon, Associate Dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Law students at the Saturday conference heard from Thomas B. Griffith of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Richard L. Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University; Father Robert F. Drinian, former Dean of the Boston College of Law School; and Cheryl B. Preston, a law professor at BYU.