Randolph Wolfson, ordained minister [Calvary Chapel of Phoenix, AZ] and trial attorney, was selected for the Blackstone Legal Institute's National Litigation Academy and graduated with the July 2004 class. He is currently a Litigation ally of the Alliance Defense Fund.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) was founded by leaders of a number of nationally known ministries including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, Larry Burkett of Christian Financial Concepts, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, Marlin Maddoux of Point of View Radio Ministries, and the late William Pew of the Maranatha Foundation.
These men and other Christian leaders were concerned that not enough was being done to promote Christian interests and values in the legal battle for religious freedom, sanctity of life, and family values. Accordingly, in 1994 they formed ADF. ADF is a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense and advocacy of religious freedom, sanctity of life, and family values.
ADF’s function is to support Christian attorneys and Christian attorney groups. By the grace of God, ADF is achieving its ambitious long-term goals in three ways: 1) Strategic Planning and Coordination for attorneys and like minded legal groups involved in litigation; 2) Training Attorneys to enter courtrooms and decisively win cases involving religious freedom, family values, and the sanctity of life; and 3) Funding cases that have a high likelihood of establishing new legal precedents in the areas of law consistent with ADF’s mission.
Among the more than one million lawyers in America are thousands who believe in the issues supported by ADF. However, few have the specific training or experience necessary to handle a free-speech, religious liberty, or other matters involving constitutional law in areas of concern to the Alliance.
To help recruit and train this untapped resource of dedicated women and men, ADF launched the National Litigation Academy - a state-of-the-art lawyer training project - in 1997. The Academy sessions are an intense course of study conducted by some of the nation's top law school professors, litigators, and constitutional experts in the country. These experts instruct on public interest practice topics such as the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, Equal Access law, 42 USC § 1983 actions, and Family and Marriage law.
Past National Litigation Academy sessions have helped effectively equip attorneys to battle the radical homosexual legal agenda, defend parental rights, uphold the sanctity of human life, and protect religious freedom.