The Practice of Law as Response to God's Call

Legal practice, like all human work, is a religious calling, a vocation. Section I of this Article will focus on work as a calling. Although I refer in my title to the practice of law as a response to God's call, I suggest that even those who are uncomfortable with the use of religious language can share a notion of law as a calling. Section II will address the need to discern one's place in the legal profession.

Implicit in the notion of a calling is that our professional decisions are not merely internally driven, but are in response to an action from a God who calls to us. That reality demands an active reflectiveness about who we are meant to be as lawyers. Finally, Section III will identify some particular influences on the practice of law that proceed from a Catholic religious perspective (the perspective out of which I operate).