Meet Lea Patterson AMERICA’S BEST LAWYERS At First Liberty, we have America’s best lawyers defending your First Freedom. Among this group of elite legal minds is Lea Patterson, who serves our team as Senior Counsel. Patterson joined First Liberty as a judicial fellow after clerking for Judge Raymond Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She began her legal career at First Liberty, rising through the ranks while contributing to a variety of religious liberty cases. She worked on landmark case Carson v. Makin from initial client intake to Supreme Court victory. In her early days at First Liberty, she successfully advocated for senior citizens’ equal access to community spaces for Bible study. She also spent years defending the Arkansas capitol’s Ten Commandments monument. She currently leads First Liberty’s Public Arena practice group and co-authored The Religious Liberty Solution to Section 230 , a law review article proposing an innovative legal theory to protect religious expression on social media. Patterson earned her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University. At UVA, she served as an executive editor for the Virginia Law Review and as president of the UVA chapter of Advocates for Life, a national association of pro-life law students. A semifinalist in UVA’s moot court competition, she also received class awards for her legal writing and oral advocacy. During law school, she interned for the Texas Solicitor General’s Office and Senator Ted Cruz. A first generation lawyer, Patterson pursued a legal career because she felt God calling her to use her talents to protect the spread of the Gospel. Reflecting on her time at First Liberty, she said, “I’m grateful to be one of the few lawyers who can say that they never wonder whether they’ve made a difference.”
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