Alan Sears serves as President, CEO, and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). He leads the efforts of ADF through a comprehensive legal strategy that includes training, funding, and legal advocacy that has resulted in various important roles in 47 victories at the United States Supreme Court and in three out of four cases.

Since the launch of ADF in 1994, Sears has provided strategic leadership in the training of 1,846 lawyers from 45 nations through the one-of-a-kind ADF Legal Academy. These attorneys have provided more than $195 million in pro-bono/dedicated time. His visionary efforts have also resulted in the graduation of more than 1,600 outstanding law students, representing more than 200 law schools from 20 nations from the world-class Blackstone Legal Fellowship leadership training program.

Sears earned his Juris Doctor from Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. While serving in numerous positions within the Reagan and Bush Administrations, he worked for the Department of Justice under Attorneys General William French Smith and Edwin Meese III, including service as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Criminal Section. Sears was appointed as Director of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography and served as Associate Solicitor with the Department of Interior under Secretary Donald Hodel.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Sears has continued his education with professional instruction at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, and Pepperdine University.

He has co-authored several books, including The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today and The ACLU vs. America, both with Craig Osten. His most recent books are In Justice and Trial and Error.