ALAN E. SEARS, ESQUIREPresident, CEO, & General CounselAlan Sears serves as president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. He leads the strategy, training, funding, and litigation efforts of ADF that have resulted in various roles in 35 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court and wins in more than three out of four cases litigated to conclusion. Under his leadership, ADF has funded more than 2,000 grants and legal projects for allied lawyers and organizations, and ADF attorneys have successfully defended marriage as the union between one man and one woman in more than 35 cases nationwide.
Since the launch of ADF in 1994, Sears has provided strategic leadership in the training of more than 1,300 lawyers through the ADF one-of-a-kind National Litigation Academy, which is designed to equip attorneys to more effectively defend religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and marriage and the family. These attorneys have reported more than $100 million in pro-bono/dedicated time. Sears' visionary efforts have also resulted in the graduation of more than 800 outstanding law students—representing more than 130 law schools—from the unique ADF Blackstone Legal Fellowship program. This in-depth summer internship program helps equip these students to assume leadership positions to shape the future of American law.
Sears earned his Juris Doctor from Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. While serving in numerous positions within the U.S. Government, he worked for the Department of Justice under Attorneys General William French Smith and Edwin Meese III, including service as an assistant U.S. Attorney and chief of the Criminal Section. Sears was also appointed as the director of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography and served as associate solicitor with the Department of the Interior under Secretary Donald Hodel. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Sears has continued his education with professional instruction at Stanford University, Harvard Law School, Havard Business School, and Pepperdine University.
Practicing law for three decades, Sears is a member in good standing with the American, Arizona, California, District of Columbia (inactive), and Kentucky bar associations. He has helped fashion the language for numerous state and federal laws and has testified before committees of the U.S. House and Senate, state legislatures, and many local governments and commissions. Legislators in 20 states have adopted his legislative recommendations. Sears has assisted legislators and law enforcement officials from many countries and has spoken before committees of the British Parliament.
Sears' numerous media appearances include television interviews and features on
The Today Show, Nightline, CNN, Fox News, C-SPAN,
The O'Reilly Factor,
Oprah, CNN, and
The Lou Dobbs Show. He has also been a radio guest on various programs, including
The Laura Ingraham Show, National Public Radio, and
The Dennis Prager Radio Show. Sears has been extensively covered in national print media, including the
Washington Post, the
Associated Press, the
Washington Times, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the
Arizona Republic, and the
National Catholic Register. He is a regular opinion contributor to Townhall.com and has co-authored several books, including
The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today (2003) and
The ACLU vs. America (2005), both with Craig Osten.