President Johnson Teaches Law Society About Advocacy in the Savior’s Way

 
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By Sydney Walker, Church News
 

Legal professionals can have many titles — lawyers, attorneys, counselors at law, and in some parts of the world, solicitors or barristers.

“What makes you distinct among your professional colleagues is that you are first — before any designation relating to your legal training — children of the covenant and disciples of Jesus Christ,” Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson told members of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law Society.

Speaking to members of the law society and their spouses and friends gathered in the Relief Society Building on Temple Square on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, President Johnson said, “The way we go about accomplishing our work must be different from the world because of who we are and who we have covenanted to be.”

Prior to serving as Primary General President and now Relief Society General President, President Johnson was president of Snow Christensen & Martineau law firm in Salt Lake City, Utah. She practiced law for nearly 30 years, engaged primarily as a litigator.

Perhaps one of the sweetest titles legal professionals can have is advocate, President Johnson said. “We are advocates. … We have the opportunity to advocate for truth and righteousness.”

Advocate is a name given to, and responsibility of, the Savior. The Savior said, “Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:5).

How do legal professionals fulfill their responsibility as advocates? “As in all things, we try to be like Jesus,” President Johnson said. It’s a truth taught to Primary children through the song “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus.”

President Johnson highlighted two refrains from this Primary song that can help legal professionals be better advocates.

 
‘Love One Another as Jesus Loves You’

Jesus loves each individual as a child of God. Primary children also sing this truth through the song “I Am a Child of God.”

President Johnson quoted President Russell M. Nelson’s words to the young adults earlier this year in a worldwide devotional: “I fear that you may have heard this truth so often that it sounds more like a slogan than divine truth. And yet, the way you think about who you really are affects almost every decision you will ever make.”

President Johnson asked: “Do you remember who you are? Is it imprinted on your heart?”

She said those who truly believe they are children of God are better able to resist temptation, have improved ability to navigate challenges, are invested in a relationship with the Savior and set eternal priorities.

“Importantly, to your work as advocates, we treat others differently when we recognize who we are and who they are,” she said.

President Johnson explained that, as a litigator, she tried to find something in common with opposing counsel, even those who were disagreeable. “In my heart I knew we were all children of a loving Heavenly Father, and I knew their clients were too.”

She said this perspective helped her navigate the natural challenges of practicing law, where conflict or the potential for conflict was the reason for her work.

“As advocates of Christ, we love one another as Jesus loves us. We love one another and treat them as children of God, fellow travelers on the journey home to our Heavenly Father.”

 
‘Be Gentle and Loving in Deed and in Thought’

One attribute of Jesus Christ that all should seek to emulate in their advocacy is meekness, President Johnson said.

The Savior, the perfect example of meekness, said: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles defined meekness as “strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious, or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others.”

Elder Bednar also taught, “Meek is what we become as disciples of the Master and not just something we do.”

As children of the covenant, disciples of Jesus Christ and advocates for Him, “we seek to become like Him,” President Johnson said. ”We are back where we started: ‘I’m trying to be like Jesus. I’m following in His ways.’

“It is my prayer for all of us that as we work and serve and advocate that we will do so with the influence of the Spirit and in the way that our Savior would have us do: ‘Strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash.’”

At the end of her remarks, President Johnson answered a question about finding work-life balance. During the course of her professional life, she and her husband, Douglas R. Johnson, had three sons.

“I don’t think I did it perfectly,” she said, but “I think that the work and family life balance was best achieved for me by always making sure my priorities were in order. My priorities were my family first — my love for my Heavenly Father, my love for my family.”

Megan White, a member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society who works at Kunzler Bean & Adamson law firm in Salt Lake City, said she was grateful for the opportunity to take an hour out of her work day to feel the Spirit with friends and colleagues.

“It was a great perspective to encourage us to think about everyone we interact with, even opposing counsel, as children of God,” she said. White said she also appreciated President Johnson’s comments about work-life balance and making family her priority.

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