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The Humble Jurist podcast by the J. Reuben Clark Law Society (JRCLS) "affirms the strength brought to the law by a lawyer's personal religious conviction." It encourages attorneys and law students of faith, whatever faith that might be, to "strive through public service and professional excellence to promote fairness and virtue founded upon the rule of law."
About JRCLS: Within the ranks of the Law Society, you will find thousands of attorneys and other law school graduates from around the world. Its membership includes leaders and aspiring leaders pursuing a myriad of professions, from politics to law, to academia, to corporate governance and beyond.
To join, visit:
https://jrcls.org/
Welcome to Humble Jurist, the J. Rubin Clark Law Society podcast. I'm Lucas Stevens, 2L at Gonzaga University School of Law. In this episode, I'm joined by Sam Morales. Sam is an attorney from Mexico whose practice is focused on corporate law and nonprofit and religious organizations.
Lucas Stevens:He holds an LLB from Universidad del Valle de Mexico and an LLM from the Brigham Young University J. Rubin Clark Law School, where he was a Sterling Fellow with the International Center for Law and Religious Studies. After years of JRCLS leadership across Latin America, including chairing the first international annual conference in Mexico City, Sam was appointed associate director of the Law Society in September 2025. Sam, thank you for being on the podcast. First, could you share a bit about yourself?
Sam Morales:Okay. So I am from Mexico. My name is Samuel Morales or Samuel Morales. I grew up in a small town. I'm a small town boy.
Sam Morales:I'm from Michoacan, Mexico. So Michoacan is in the Southwest of Mexico where all these Dia de los Muertos celebration originated and all this beauty of like One of the most Mexican places is Michoacan. So I grew up in that context. Cool. I grew up, in a family that were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
Sam Morales:My parents have been members for a long time. My grandparents were like pioneers in the church in Mexico. So that was not very common. So I grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ in one of the most Catholic states. So that has had an impact in my life, in my law practice, in my interest in the law society mission, especially in the when we talk about religious freedom, how we need to defend and promote religious freedom and tolerance towards others, Given the context where I grew up, I became very interested in learning more about this and how to promote and how to teach others about tolerance.
Sam Morales:So I grew up in this context. So I left my home when I was 15 years old. I went to study in a church owned high school. After that, I went to my mission. Then I came to Utah to study English as a second language.
Sam Morales:And right after that, I went back to Mexico City to, study law. So I graduated from law school after a five year program in Universidad de Valle de Mexico, which is a private university. I got married when I was finishing second semester of law school.
Lucas Stevens:Oh, wow.
Sam Morales:And when I graduated, we were expecting our second child. I really. Yeah. And well, so I just started from scratch. I didn't have any relative or my father or my uncle or a family friend who was a lawyer.
Sam Morales:I never had a lawyer close to me or a mentor. So I had to start from scratch and looking for opportunities and struggling with all these things that I think are generally in any country. When you are a young lawyer, you struggle a lot with finding what you really want to do and finding what you're really passionate about. I started doing criminal law. Then I just went to more white collar litigation, other type of crimes.
Sam Morales:And then I became familiar with the law society, and that changed my life. In 2019, I received an offer to come to BYO Law School, do a fellowship at the same time that I was studying my LLM. Graduated as an LLM in comparative law. And at the same time, was working for the International Center for Law and Religion Studies as a fellow learning about religious freedom and working on religious freedom cases. I've been involved with the Law Society for eleven years now.
Lucas Stevens:So how did you first get involved with the J. Rubin Clark Law Society?
Sam Morales:Oh, that's a very good question. I first heard about the Law Society, I believe it was through a announcement of my stake president in Mexico City. And like he sent an email, circulated an email where they were calling for LDS attorneys, LDS lawyers in Mexico City to go to a certain place for a fireside. And I remember in getting to that place, that was the first time I heard about it. I remember reaching out to I just entered the access, internet, the webpage.
Sam Morales:And I remember looking for the email of the international share by then. And I just emailed him and say, Hey, this is interesting. I love what I heard, but I haven't heard anything again about it. So tell me what can I do? And then it all started.
Sam Morales:We started the chapter in Mexico City. That's how I got involved.
Lucas Stevens:Awesome. Now could you share how your faith has impacted your legal practice?
Sam Morales:My faith has impacted my legal practice in many ways. When I first learned about the Law Society and the principles and its mission, and I learned about how we can or let our faith inform our profession, everything changed. Everything changed from that moment on. After that, dealing with every person in that profession, going to court, going to aid mediation, meeting with your clients or from the opposing party, your religion plays the most important role. Like you are not saying everywhere that you are a person of faith, but you need to impersonate the principles of your faith when you are talking to someone else, regardless the the the the setting, regardless the space, regardless the venue, or regardless, the circumstance that you are discussing.
Lucas Stevens:Well said. Now you have served in nearly every major JRCLS leadership position in Latin America. Looking back, what has been the most meaningful or rewarding part of your service?
Sam Morales:The most meaningful part is learning. Learning from others, learning from the international leadership. I think that was the most, the best part of it. Like when I started as the chapter share in Mexico City, I remember getting mentorship from leaders from The United States and receiving training and phone calls. We didn't have Zoom calls by then.
Sam Morales:It was, like, ten years ago, eleven years ago, but we didn't have Zoom calls. Like, it was just, like, phone calls checking on me, how I'm doing, how is my chapter doing, learning how things are done in a different country. So that was very, very humbling to me. It was a learning period, but about the most rewarding part, think, is working with people. When you serve in pro bono, that is rewarding.
Sam Morales:I was a bishop when I started the chapter in Mexico City, had been recently as a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. When I was learning about pro bono and I said, okay, I do this a lot. Like there's a lot of people reaching out to me and they know that I'm a lawyer. That was the most rewarding part, serving the people that really don't have a way to access justice or to receive justice. It's very, very refining, you know, a very refining experience.
Lucas Stevens:Wow. Okay. Now that you've stepped into the position of associate director, what are your top priorities?
Sam Morales:Wow, when I was being interviewed for this position, I was asked that. My main priority is to ensure that everyone, every member of the love society feels included, whatever that means. So whatever it takes to make someone feel included, that's my priority. So the things we do, something as probably as easy as translating a document, facilitating the, you know, the resources, the materials, the trainings in their language, that is part of making everybody feel included, feel welcomed. Because if we tell someone, you are welcome to the society, but we don't treat them equally by providing the same tools or the same resources, are not being inclusive.
Sam Morales:So that is my first priority. I would say another one is making everyone feel safe in this place. The Law Society, Lucas, has been my safe place for the past ten years. So every time I came to the Leadership Conference was a reminder that this was my safe place. This is what I want to be.
Sam Morales:This is what I forget about the ugliness about the law, and I learned about the beauty about law. The law can be like, phew. Our profession is a profession of contrasts. So you have the wealthy lawyers, you have the not so wealthy lawyers, you have the most exciting practices, you have big law, but you have also public interest practice, you do nonprofit. So it is a professional contrast.
Sam Morales:It is beauty in each practice, but there is also ugliness in each practice. If we are not centered, if we are not, we don't have a strong foundation, I mean. And to me, the law society is a safe place. And that is, I would say that's my top priority to make everybody knows, each member, especially each law student, that they know that there is a safe place for them where they can remember the basics and they can remember why they chose to study law. Is to me a haven, a place of refuge.
Lucas Stevens:Sam, you spoke earlier about your passion for pro bono work, as well as the need for us to be focused on our own principles and religious convictions. That being said, could you share more about the service of the society and the impacts we're having in that regard?
Sam Morales:Yes. I believe that as lawyers, we are trained to help in a different way. Like it is not the regular help that we do. Like we can do all type of service, you know, like humanitarian, we can do some kind of training for people. Like we do a lot of work in chapters.
Sam Morales:There is a lot of options to serve. Like for example, we have chapters that have trained in the past months a group of merchants of a public market in Colombia, in Barranquilla, and they are teaching them about being like legally organized or legally incorporated as merchants. So that is amazing. But also we have some chapters that are working with victims of violence or domestic violence. And then we have other chapters that do, they respond very quickly to the natural disasters, like an earthquake in Philippines, a devastating flood in Southeast Mexico.
Sam Morales:So every service is very, very meaningful. But what I mean is that we have a lot of options because of our profession. Our skills, our training prepare us to do more for the community. We are not limited. We are trained to support victims of natural disasters.
Sam Morales:Trained to support, for example, people in the rest homes, resting homes in Brazil, people who were suffering from violence or abuse in the public resting homes, for example. That's something I don't know of any organization that is able to do that much in that variety of service in the world. I don't know of any other organization that is trained and that is willing to do it for free because we understand the mission. And those who are active members in the Law Society not only understand, but they embrace the principles and the mission of the Law Society, and that is why we are seeing more and more chapters in individuals doing a lot in their communities. You just scroll down, like in the web page and you will see what things are happening around the world.
Sam Morales:I'm just amazed about that. And I'm just amazed about how selfless the people are. Like, they care about others. They do it because they care about others. They don't care about themselves.
Sam Morales:And we have some countries where lawyers are not as wealthy as in other parts of the world, and they don't have any problem with giving of their time or giving of their resources to help others just because they understand that this is not only something that makes us feel better or makes us feel good, but it's also a moral responsibility that we have as trained professionals.
Lucas Stevens:Thank you. Next, will you speak to the international nature of the society and how you envision its global mission expanding in the coming years?
Sam Morales:Yes. That's an excellent question because it was not until I got this job that I really understood how international is the law society. I mean, we know it is a global society. We know that we have chapters around the world, but if I was not in this position, I wouldn't have that, like, sense of a real global society when you are receiving reports from all over the world of these wonderful lawyers and law students doing great, Like any type of events, any type of service activities, any type of seminars, they're doing like humanitarian service around the world. There is no way for you to realize that when you are not in a leadership position.
Sam Morales:If you don't open the newsletter or you are not very into, you don't like spending time scrolling through a webpage, you don't get to know those things. But this law society is really international. And I would say that one of the things that we are witnessing right now is this transformation of the year CLS. When we are changing our mindset of here is this American society and we want to foster foreign lawyers to come and learn how we do things. Because that's how I felt.
Sam Morales:That's how I felt when I first came. I was like, yeah, I'm learning from them. I'm being fostered by them. I've been trained by them. But I think that the tendency or the trend now is to value more the foreign professionals, not try to be paternal in sales that, hey, we are helping you, we are providing you training, we are teaching you how we do things, we are teaching you how you should do things.
Sam Morales:When in reality, Lucas, it is difficult for us to visualize the quality of the people that are part of this law society. And we focus a lot in our legal system. We want to teach them about it And we don't focus on what we can learn from the foreign authorities. You know what I mean? It's like we need to value.
Sam Morales:And I think we are doing a great job. We are in the right direction where we are including the foreign lawyers, the volunteers, and we learning more from them and they are taking more active roles in the law society. And you can see it, if you go to the page, you will see diversity of nationalities, diversity of backgrounds in each of the committees. So this is one example of how this is changing. And I think this is in the right direction.
Sam Morales:So I believe that we still have a lot, a lot to do for law students. And I think that is something that we need to work more. We need to figure out how to help more the law students be better mentors for the law students in how we get them into the right path. Because we can have student chapters in the law society, when they graduate, a big part of this law graduates, they just stop attending or they're just not part of a chapter, but they are the future. They are the future.
Sam Morales:When I was the chapter chair in Mexico City, I was there long enough to have two student representatives in the board, and now both of them are chapter chairs. So that is the future. We want to see that pattern more often. So I think that is what we are trying to do more for the law students. We recently hired a student chapter manager, which will make a difference because we need to invest more in our students.
Sam Morales:So that is the way or the direction that the Law Society is going to at this moment, at investing more in the foreign professionals and our law students.
Lucas Stevens:Well, it's exciting to hear. Shifting from service to another part of our vision statement, religious freedom, Sam, in your opinion, what are the most pressing religious freedom issues internationally?
Sam Morales:One constant is government restrictions. I mean, there's a lot of challenges depending on the country of the legal system, of the government system, of the type of social or economical regime that those countries have. But the constant is always the government restrictions. Another challenge that we are seeing now, Lucas, is those challenges that we were not expecting, those disruptive challenges that come with the digital era, you know, like the social media, like it is more easily accessible for anyone just to do online attacks or online censorship or serve billions of religious groups, or for example, misinformation about a certain religion or a certain group. That is something that we are not well trained for.
Sam Morales:Sometimes we don't know how to deal with it, and governments don't know how to deal with it because they don't want to mess with, freedom of speech. You know, that's something that I think that is one of the most alarming challenges to the to the, religious freedom is the the the the the social media thing. It is very variable, like, from a con one country to another. But I would say, Lucas, that one thing that we sometimes forget while trying to understand from the legal perspective is the human aspect of the religious freedom, the personal, the individual aspect of the religious freedom. That is something that it is alarming too, because when we talk about religious freedom or religious tolerance, we often think of interfaith efforts or tolerance or being tolerant with others, with other religions, with other groups, but we forget that we need to be tolerant within the people of our same religion, regardless of our religion.
Sam Morales:Like religious freedom is not only how we understand and treat others or being tolerant to others. It means understanding that each person individually has a different way to deal with divinity, with their belief. Like, I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and all my family members are members of the church. We all have a different way to understand God. Our religion means a different thing from one person to another.
Sam Morales:Each principle means a different thing or is understood differently from one person to another. And we think about outwards and we forget to think inwards. And that is the conversation that we need to have more often when we talk about religious freedom and respecting others' beliefs.
Lucas Stevens:Well said. Thank you, Sam. Finally, what advice would you offer law students or attorneys, regardless of their practice area, who want to get involved with JRCLS or contribute to our efforts?
Sam Morales:Okay. So first just try to learn more about the Law Society, learn about its mission, and if it is of your interest, join the Law Society. We are a mission focused organization. So every decision that we make in every seminar, every service is informed by that mission or vision. That is why the first thing that I recommend to a law student, law lawyer, and the community in general is that learn about mission, learn about the impact that our organization has in the society, in the local communities around the world.
Sam Morales:And I promise you that if you read about that and you learn about that, you will be convinced upon the mission, that you will want to get involved in that. That's how I got involved, because I listened in a fireside. I listened about the Law Society. I listened to a report. I listened and I liked what I heard.
Sam Morales:So I think that is the first thing we need to do. Learn about the mission. Then when you learn about the mission, sign up, be a member, get involved in the activities, get involved in the seminars, get involved in the CLEs, get involved in the firesides, get involved in the dinners, in the launches, in everything. No matter how sophisticated this activity or how simple it is, it will uplift you. You will learn from all yours.
Sam Morales:When I came for the first time to the Leadership Conference, I was inspired by the people that were around me. I said, want to be like the persons, individuals of faith, as lawyers of faith. And that only happens when you interact with others. So the desire to be better will not come only by learning about the love society. It will come by interacting, by attending all the activities and the events, Being part of the service projects, that is refining, that is, you forget about yourself when you serve others.
Sam Morales:And that is how I see the Society. That is how I feel about the Law Society, that I am what I am professionally because of my ten years of active involvement and participation in the German Child Law Society. So I invite others to do the same.
Lucas Stevens:That concludes this discussion. Again, Sam Morales, thank you for sharing your insights into the JRCLS and international perspective. If you enjoyed this episode of Humble Jurist and are listening on a podcast platform, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. Also, please join us next month and thanks for listening.