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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (September 28, 2004) — Susan Pace Hamill didn’t begin her law career with altruistic ambitions, but somewhere along the way she began to see the implications of her Christian faith in her everyday life. That led the former IRS attorney, who is now a law professor at the University of Alabama, to think more theologically about her vocation.
Hamill’s Bible-based critique opposing her state’s unbalanced tax system garnered significant attention last year, including articles in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
“I was a ‘tax jock’ who sat around for seven years and was so busy with my own stuff that I didn’t even notice how horribly awry we’ve gone in an area of my own expertise,” Hamill told a Christianity Today reporter. “You know, ‘To whom much has been given, from him much will be required.”
This week at Milligan College’s Institute for Servant Leadership lectures, Hamill will discuss how she has shaped her career into a ministry of public service and used her vocational expertise in tax law to influence change based on biblical principles.
“Hamill is an excellent example of a Christian wearing her faith in the public arena and using her faith as the foundation for bringing forward significant action for change of culture,” said Dr. Bert Allen, professor of psychology at Milligan College.
Hamill holds degrees from Emory University, Tulane University, New York University, and Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. She practiced law with the New York law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell and Chadbourne & Parke before serving as an attorney adviser for the Chief Counsel’s Office of the Internal Revenue Service. While serving the Chief Counsel’s Office, she taught business planning and partnership taxation at George Mason Law School.
Hamill will present the Institute for Servant Leadership Lectures at Milligan this Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. in Wilson Auditorium of Hardin Hall, and at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30, in Seeger Memorial Chapel. She will also speak to several classes about her reform efforts in Alabama.
Milligan’s Institute for Servant Leadership encourages students to reflect on how their faith is related to their career choices and what it means to be called to lives of service.
For more information, please contact the Public Relations Office at 423.461.8764 or 8719.