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University of Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole has been awarded the 2023 Legal Service Award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Cole received the award at the Becket’s annual gala in New York City on May 25. The award is in recognition of his “trailblazing expansion of the clinic concept” in launching Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to receive this award among such august company,” Cole said in remarks at the gala. “I think that it is a testament to the power of God that I, the most unlikely recipient of such an honor, should be selected to receive it.”
The Religious Liberty Initiative’s work focuses on thought leadership, professional formation and advocacy. It provides mentorship for student fellows in the Religious Liberty Clinic and scholarships for students.
The Religious Liberty Clinic works in three practice areas: domestic litigation, transactional advising, and global religious persecution and immigration.
“I designed the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Initiative to implement the ideas of Seamus Hasson, using the structure employed by Charles Hamilton Huston,” Cole said at the May 25 event. “I then searched for someone to implement it, and Mark Rienzi pointed me to a true unicorn, a scholar and litigator by the name of professor Stephanie Barclay. When I presented this idea to Stephanie, she decided in less than a week that she would be the one to make my dream a reality.
“… And I am so grateful to God that He is using me, His most unlikely servant, to do His will to make the world a better place,” Cole said.
The Becket Fund describes itself as a “non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute with a mission to protect the free expression of all faiths.”
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