Religious organizations have legal protections other employers don’t. Most of my work is helping clients keep them.
Litigation and Appeals
Religious liberty and employment cases in federal and state courts, from trial through appeal — as lead counsel or as special counsel alongside other firms.
Employment Counsel
Hiring and termination, religious qualifications for positions, handbooks, and workplace investigations — built to preserve the Title VII religious employer exemption, the ministerial exception, and church autonomy. Representation before the EEOC and state agencies.
Mission Audits
A review of whether your documents and practices match what you say you believe, and whether they would hold up if challenged. Governing documents, handbooks, job descriptions, hiring and admissions practices.
Governance and Policy
Affiliations, mergers, new entities, and bylaw changes can strengthen your legal protections or quietly give them up. I help boards decide with the consequences in view, then draft the documents that carry it out.
Amicus Briefs
Briefs for organizations that want their perspective before an appellate court or the Supreme Court, especially briefs that give the court information the parties can’t.
Representative Matters
Orthodox Church in America v. Ferguson
E.D. Wash. · Lead counsel (admitted pro hac vice), with Alliance Defending Freedom
In 2025, Washington made clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse without exempting what a priest hears in confession. A coalition of Orthodox churches sued under the First Amendment, arguing that the law forced priests to choose between the criminal code and the seal of confession.
The case ended when Washington State agreed to a permanent injunction and final judgment. The judgment finds that the law violates the Free Exercise Clause as applied to confession and other sacred confidences, and bars the State from denying clergy the privilege exception available to other mandatory reporters. [See selected work]
Rolovich v. Washington State University
9th Cir. · Directing litigation strategy; co-counsel with Becket
Washington State University denied head football coach Nick Rolovich’s request for a religious exemption from the State’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, then fired him. Coach Rolovich sued for religious discrimination. In the district court, I wrote the portion of the summary-judgment briefing arguing that WSU decided to deny his request before he submitted it. The appeal was argued in June 2026 and is pending.
Zion HealthShare v. Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner
Wash. Ct. App. · Special counsel on religious liberty issues
Zion is a health-care sharing ministry. Washington exempts sharing ministries from insurance regulation only if they existed before 2000, so newer ministries like Zion are regulated as insurers. Zion argues that this cutoff violates the rule of Larson v. Valente: the First Amendment prohibits government from preferring some religious organizations over others. The case is pending. [See selected work]
Catholic Benefits Association v. Sebelius
W.D. Okla. · Counsel for the plaintiffs (at Lewis Roca)
The Catholic Benefits Association is an association of Catholic employers that provide health coverage to their employees. The ACA’s contraception mandate required those plans to cover contraception and sterilization, and the “accommodation” offered to religious employers still required them to submit a document that triggered coverage through their plans.
The court declared that the mandate violated RFRA and permanently enjoined its enforcement against the CBA’s qualifying nonprofit and for-profit members, including future members.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
