Use your gifts to serve
Christian Volunteer Opportunities for Lawyers
A Christian lawyer can serve Christ and neighbour through pro bono work for the poor, defending the persecuted and trafficked, fighting injustice through justice ministries, and offering legal help to churches, missions, and nonprofits. To defend those who cannot defend themselves is close to the heart of the God who loves justice and mercy.
Your skill is needed
Scripture returns again and again to the cry for justice for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, and a lawyer holds a rare power to answer it. Millions are trapped by trafficking, false imprisonment, and legal systems they cannot navigate. Pro bono hours, given faithfully, are a form of mercy the King himself receives as done to him.
Where this skill serves
Real organizations through which Christian attorneys serve include:
- International Justice Mission (IJM), a global organization that uses law and local justice systems to rescue people from violence, slavery, and trafficking, and employs and partners with lawyers.
- the Christian Legal Society, a national association of Christian lawyers and law students that coordinates pro bono legal aid through Christian Legal Aid clinics.
- Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which litigates and trains attorneys on religious-liberty and related cases, with allied-attorney and pro bono networks.
- Advocates International, a global network linking Christian lawyers who serve on human rights, rule of law, and religious freedom.
These organizations are named as information, not endorsement. The Living Bread is not affiliated with them, and does not post their openings. Missions, terms, statements of faith, and current needs vary, so look into each one directly for yourself before you commit.
How to begin
Start small and start near. Tell your own church what you can do and ask where the need is; most fellowships are quietly desperate for skilled hands and rarely think to ask. From there you can widen out to a wider work. When you are ready, these places on The Living Bread will help you take the next honest step.
Come and see
Before your work is a skill it is a gift, and gifts have a Giver. Whatever your trade, the same Christ who filled craftsmen with his Spirit still delights to use ordinary hands, and he is gentle with everyone who comes to him honestly. If you have never really met him, you can begin today. It costs you nothing but a little quiet and an open heart.
Read the Gospel of JohnWhy Jesus?Ask for prayerJesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- How can a Christian lawyer serve through their profession?
- Through pro bono legal aid for the poor (Christian Legal Society clinics), anti-trafficking and justice work (International Justice Mission), religious-liberty cases (ADF), and legal help for churches and nonprofits. These are named as information, not endorsement, so investigate each yourself.
- Where can Christian attorneys do pro bono work?
- The Christian Legal Society coordinates Christian Legal Aid clinics, and many local churches and nonprofits need legal counsel. International Justice Mission engages lawyers in justice work abroad and at home.
- Can lawyers serve in missions?
- Yes. Justice ministries, human-rights and religious-freedom networks, and the legal needs of mission and relief organizations all draw on legal skill, at home and overseas.