Vision for CLS
I view CLS as a community of lawyers who encourage each other to view their respective roles in the legal/judicial/governmental world as being God’s ministers of justice.  We all do or should struggle with the question of what God would have us do and with the issue of how God would have us do it.  CLS helps us to keep that struggle alive and provides us with the discipline of interaction with fellow followers of Christ.  In addition, CLS provides a wonderful venue for fellowship and networking.  While CLS provides the venues for struggling with our role as Christ centered lawyers and for fellowshipping with fellow attorneys, it also provides an organized voice for participation in the public debates on the role of religion in public life.  I see the latter as becoming ever more important.

CLS Involvement and Related Experience
I have been a CLS member since the early 1970's.  I served as the associate editor of The Christian Lawyer when CLS first published a journal.  I chaired the CLS Jurisprudence Section in the late 1970's – CLS’ relatively short lived flirtation with law and philosophy that brought a number of great legal scholars into CLS.  (Although the effort died, the scholars have stayed!)  More recently, I have participated in the CLS Section on Gifts, Estates and Trusts.  Over the years, I have spoken at a number of CLS annual conferences and have written for CLS publications.

Education and Professional Experience
I currently am a partner in the Chicago law firm of Hoogendoorn & Talbot LLP.  Throughout my career, I have specialized in the areas of estate, trust and tax planning, charitable tax planning and family business and succession planning.I am a 1966 graduate of Calvin College and a 1969 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.  I practiced as both an associate and partner in the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. 

Family
I am married to Pat.  We have three children, the eldest of whom practices law with me.  We are blessed with eight grandchildren, one of whom already has told the family that he wants to become a lawyer and practice with his grandpa and aunt!