The Center for Law and the Human Person at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) held on Wednesday, November 8, the second Faith in Action lecture of 2023-24 academic year. By invitation of Center director Elizabeth Kirk, Sullivan Cromwell partner Thomas C. White discussed the challenge of balancing his faith with his career, in a talk entitled “Life as a Catholic Big Firm Litigator.” Emphasizing the discipline required to pursue excellence as not only a litigator but also a person of faith—as well as, in his case, a father of a large family—White highlighted that lawyers must be honest with themselves about their commitments, both religious and secular. He noted that ways to better live out the proper ordering of obligations to God, family, and work could always be identified by a rigorous examination of conscience; and shared that, in his experience, spending time in daily prayer is possible—even for very busy people—because God is a “time multiplier.”

It has become a tradition in the Faith in Action lecture series for the guest speaker to share a book that has influenced his or her faith and vocation. White recommended “He Leadeth Me,” by Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J, a story of the author’s decades in a Soviet labor camp in Siberia and the way in which he was able to see God’s Providence at work in his life despite tremendous suffering.

The Faith in Action lecture series, an initiative of Catholic Law’s Center for Law and the Human Person, seeks to provide students with living examples of lawyers who witness to their faith through their legal vocation. The Center will host two more lunchtime lectures this academic year: the Rev. Dominic Legge, O.P., director of the Thomistic Institute, will present on February 13, 2024, and Jennifer Bradley Lichter, deputy general counsel of Catholic University, will present on March 21, 2024.