Alan Sears | Ohio Christian University

Alan Sears has served as president, CEO, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom since its founding in 1993. He leads the strategy, training, funding, and litigation efforts of this alliance-building legal ministry that brings together thousands of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations to protect religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family in America and around the world.

Alan Sears serves as president, CEO, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith. He leads the strategy, training, funding, and litigation efforts that have resulted in various roles in 38 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court and wins in eight of every 10 cases litigated to conclusion. Under his leadership, Alliance Defending Freedom has funded nearly 2,400 grants and legal projects for Allied Attorneys and organizations, and has equipped more than 1,600 Christian attorneys and 1,000 law students to defend religious liberty at its world-class training programs.

Sears earned his Juris Doctor from Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. While serving in numerous positions within the 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, Harvard 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, 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. Sears has also written two novels, In Justice (2009) and its sequel Trial and Error (2011).