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Legal Counsel, Global Religious Freedom

London, United Kingdom

Everyone says they want to change the world. We're looking for people who actually will. 

ADF International is a faith-based legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people.  Please visit our career site to view our Statement of Faith and Doctrinal Distinctives.

 

Legal Counsel, Global Religious Freedom

This is a temporary position ending on June 30, 2026. 

ADF International is looking for a highly organized Legal Counsel, Global Religious Freedom, to join us full-time on a temporary basis in our London, UK office. As Legal Counsel/Officer, you are a vital part of ADF International. In this role, you will report to the Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom and assist in efforts to identify and counter global persecution against Christians and other religious minorities. You will assist the Global Religious Freedom team with increasing and coordinating litigation and advocacy efforts of allied attorneys to combat religious persecution, with a particular focus on assisting persecuted individuals in the Middle East and Africa.

While this role is initially a fixed-term maternity cover, there may be an opportunity for a permanent position at the end of the term, subject to performance and budget availability. Any such extension would be confirmed through a separate written agreement prior to the conclusion of the fixed term.

 

Your Essential Responsibilities:

  • Advise allied attorneys on legal issues within areas of competence;
  • Network and develop relationships with allied attorneys, organizations, and other allies;
  • Conduct in-depth and high quality legal research;
  • Draft scholarly reports, law review articles, white papers, and legal memorandums;
  • Advocate for legal responses to global persecution at relevant bodies of law and governance, including the US State Department, US Congress, and USCIRF;
  • Support the team in building a global alliance of lawyers, law students, church leaders, public intellectuals, NGO leaders, business leaders, academics, diplomats, policy makers and law makers to advance international religious freedom globally;
  • Identify and analyze relevant legal and political developments and provide reporting, as required, to support ADF International advocacy at international institutions;
  • Conduct training for lawyers, religious leaders, and other professionals in the Middle East and Africa on issues relating to religious freedom;
  • Engage the media through op-eds, commentaries, and quotes connected to ADF International work, as well as conducting interviews on radio or television;
  • Present at conferences.

Other Responsibilities:

  • You will be asked to perform related duties or special projects as assigned.

 

Skills You Need to Succeed:

Demonstrated proficiency in:

  • High relational and interpersonal skills and social intelligence.
  • Excellent legal research and writing skills.
  • You will have firm knowledge of public international law and human rights law.
  • Track record of successful cross-cultural networking; must exhibit ability to navigate and foster relationships with high-ranking officials, dignitaries, distinguished professionals, etc. including those from foreign nations.

Ability to:

  • Travel internationally.
  • Write and speak with excellence in English.
  • Convey information in a way that will be accurately understood in an international context, and be able to motivate, empathize, and connect well with students and established legal professionals of other cultures to create affinity and develop lasting relationships.

 

Education and/or Experience:

  • Qualified attorney
  • Familiarity with religious freedom issues (preference for familiarity with religious freedom issues in the Middle East/North Africa/Sub-Saharan Africa regions).
  • Proven experience communicating effectively, both written and orally, cross-culturally.

 

Valid work permit for the UK or UK citizenship required.

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Statement of Faith

Based on our adherence to the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture, we profess with the Christian Church throughout time and around the world the faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Doctrinal Distinctives

Also, based on this confession, we are committed to honoring God by obeying the two Greatest Commandments, loving God and loving neighbor, and based on that commitment and derived from the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture, we profess the following as necessary for living the gospel:

  • We believe in the spiritual unity and equality of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • We believe that the Lordship of Christ requires us as disciples to seek to conform our actions, thoughts, and desires in obedience to Him.
  • We believe God creates each person with an immutable biological sex — male or female — that reflects the image and likeness of God.
  • We believe God designed marriage as a unique conjugal relationship joining one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, life-long union, and God intends sexual intimacy only to occur within that relationship.
  • We believe God endows all human life with inherent dignity, and it must be respected and protected from conception to natural death.
  • We believe that God has endowed all humans with the natural, and inalienable right of religious freedom to believe, pursue truth, and live within ordered liberty such that no civil government may justly infringe upon it.
  • We believe that God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, calls all of us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, knowing that He promises us abundant and eternal life.

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