ALAN SEARS  is the president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Since ADF’s inception in 1994, he has led the strategy, training, funding, and litigation initiatives in the legal battle to defend and protect religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.

In 1993, Dr. James Dobson, the late Dr. Bill Bright, the late Larry Burkett, Dr. D. James Kennedy, and the other founders of the Alliance Defense Fund, were prayerfully seeking God’s direction for the right person to lead the fledgling organization. They selected Alan Sears, of whom Dr. Bright said God had uniquely prepared for this role.

Under Alan’s leadership, ADF has gone from an idea to the nation’s largest religious liberty legal alliance. In that time, ADF has funded more than 1,400 cases, trained over 850 volunteer allied attorneys through its National Litigation Academy program, and 400 first and second year law students through its Blackstone Legal Fellowship. ADF and its allies have also been successful in 30 cases before the United States Supreme Court.

Previously, Alan held numerous positions with the United States Government including the Department of Justice, under Attorneys General William French Smith and Ed Meese III, as an Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of Criminal Section; as Director of the Attorney General’s commission on Pornography; and the Department of Interior under Secretary Donald Hodel as an Associate Solicitor, with other not for profit public interest legal organizations, and in the private practice of law.

As a federal prosecutor, Alan was responsible for running regional and national task forces, prosecuted hundreds of complex federal crimes, and argued 22 cases before the federal court of appeals (with only one loss).

Alan also wrote state and federal laws, testified before the committees of the U.S. House and Senate, and before 22 state legislatures. Twenty states adopted his recommendations. He has spoken before committees of the British Parliament and at the Vatican, as well as training hundreds of law enforcement officials from Australia to Scotland Yard.

As a result of his impressive record, the liberal American Bar Association’s magazine, Barrister, once recognized him as one of the outstanding young lawyers in America.

Alan has appeared on more than one thousand radio and television programs, including ABC’s 20/20 and Nightline, Fox's O'Reilly Factor, NBC’s Today, and media outlets such as CNN, PBS, and CBS News. He has also been featured on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family program more than 25 times. He is the co-author of The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today with Craig Osten, published by Broadman and Holman in June 2003, co-author of The ACLU vs. America with Craig Osten, published by Broadman and Holman in 2005, and has written numerous other publications.

Alan has a rare blend of experience in administration, intense legal practice in both private and public sectors, and expertise in First Amendment issues. Under Alan’s leadership, the Alliance Defense Fund has a three to one success rate in cases litigated to conclusion.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky, with a Juris Doctor from Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, Sears is a member in good standing with the American, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, and Kentucky Bar Associations.