Americans United for Life Makes Big Hire: Bill Saunders

Well published and very expensive, Harvard JD, Bill Saunders has just been hired by Americans United for Life.

AUL’s, president and CEO, Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., says,

We were lucky to get him.

The press release,

By Melanie Johnson | May 22, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC — William L. “Bill” Saunders today joined Americans United for Life (AUL) as Senior Counsel. Mr. Saunders will be leading the development of an international edition of AUL’s definitive legal guide Defending Life and contributing to AUL’s work on bioethics, rights of conscience, and end of life issues.

Dr. Charmaine Yoest, AUL President & CEO said: “I am very pleased Bill is joining our team. As a Harvard-trained attorney with extensive publications and a prominent reputation in the pro-life movement, Bill’s addition is a strategic move for AUL as we head into our next phase of development. He will be an important resource for us as we move toward the coming Supreme Court nomination.”

Mr. Saunders said: “It is a great honor to be a part of AUL, an organization with a reputation for excellence and unparalleled expertise. Working to expand the protection of human life beyond our national borders and to provide more resources to pro-life allies around the globe is a significant venture. This new project is critical as we see the targeted threats to life growing internationally.”

Mr. Saunders was featured in Harvard’s first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003, and again in the 2008 edition, and he served on Harvard’s Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law.

He speaks and writes frequently on international law and life-related topics such as stem cell research and cloning. He has submitted testimony on several occasions to the President’s Council on Bioethics and has briefed Congressional staff multiple times on stem cell research and cloning. He delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004, and the annual James Moore Lecture (on Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.

President Bush appointed Mr. Saunders to serve on the United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001-2002. In 2004, he served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha Intergovernmental Conference for the Family. He served on the organizing committee for the conferences of the World Congress of Families in Mexico City (2004), in Poland (2007), in Amsterdam (2009), and is a member of that organization’s Management Committee.

Mr. Saunders served previously as Senior Fellow, Human Rights Counsel, and Director of the Center for Human Life and Bioethics at the Family Research Council. He has also practiced law with the firm Covington and Burling and taught law at the Catholic University of America. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state and federal (and foreign) courts.

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