“Religious Liberty, Applied”: In-House Counsel for Faith-Based Organizations

Students with an interest in religious liberty law typically orient towards litigation – where there is indeed a great deal of activity, much of it cutting-edge, as the courts continue to work out the contours of various legal doctrines and exemptions applicable to religious organizations and individuals. But there is also fascinating and important work to be done as in-house counsel to religious organizations. This work, too, is cutting-edge and exciting; it requires a lawyer to be up-to-date on all of the latest court decisions and to exercise superb practical judgment in real-life scenarios where faith-based organizations must make difficult and consequential decisions about how to operate consistent with the religious beliefs that animate them. Call it “religious liberty, applied.” Join Wasserstein Fellow Jennie Bradley Lichter as she offers students a window into practicing law as in-house counsel to faith-based organizations.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP below! Open to the HLS community.

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.

Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, a pro-life organization best known for hosting the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. She also leads its sister organization, March for Life Action. In the first Trump Administration, Jennie served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. In that role she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts on a vast array of issues arising from the Departments of Education, Labor, Health & Human Services, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, and others. Prior to her White House service, Jennie worked on policy issues and federal judicial (including Supreme Court) confirmation efforts in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. Jennie has worked in higher education as Deputy General Counsel for The Catholic University of America, where was also a Fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty in the University’s Columbus School of Law. She previously served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, and as an Issues & Appeals associate at Jones Day. Jennie clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Steven M. Colloton on the Eighth Circuit in Des Moines. Jennie graduated from the University of Notre Dame and from Harvard Law School and earned an M.Phil in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge in the UK.