More than 150 law professionals and students packed into the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock for the 31st annual Red Mass Oct. 17. At this Mass and the reception that followed, legal professionals honored attorney Paul James, a parishioner of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock.
The Red Mass, formally known as the Solemn Mass of the Holy Spirit, serves as a special gathering for those in public service and the legal profession to seek God’s blessing and guidance as they carry out their responsibilities in the judicial and legislative branches.
The Red Mass is hosted and organized by the St. Thomas More Society, a Catholic professional association of lawyers, judges, law professors and others involved in legal or governmental service. The society is named after a distinguished attorney from medieval England who was also a devout Catholic.
Celebrant Bishop Francis I. Malone of the Diocese of Shreveport reflected on when he presided over the first Red Mass 31 years ago, and the impact that the St. Thomas More Society has had since. He said that the St. Thomas More Society and those in the legal profession uphold justice and have throughout time.
“Historically and theologically, we are commanded by the cardinal virtue of justice to give to God and to one another what they are due. Those who occupy the bar or the bench are required to fulfill this virtue in what we do or attempt to do in these various relationships,” Bishop Malone said. “The exercise of this happening today falls upon us, not just to examine this, but to fulfill it. … I thank you and pray that justice, as God sees it, is manifested in you, your life and your work.”
James has been in private law practice in Little Rock for more than 40 years.
After practicing law with former United States Attorney W.H. “Sonny” Dillahunty, James co-founded a firm that has been in continuous operation ever since. He was one of the founding members of the St. Thomas More Society of Arkansas and has served in the past as its president and on the board of directors. He was awarded attorney of the year in 2003 by the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for his successful representation of mentally ill inmates in the county jails. He also served as a member and chairman of the Diocese of Little Rock Pastoral Council since 2020. He is a member and past president of the Serra Club of Greater Little Rock.
He is married to Sarah Lewis James, who is also an attorney. Together, they have three children, Frances, Drew and Caroline James.
“When I graduated from law school, my father brought to my office in West Memphis a framed portrait of St. Thomas More,” James said. “… It’s been hanging in my law office ever since. I think the reason it sort of keeps me alive is because when I see him hanging on the wall, he’s like a mentor, so to speak. … So when Bishop Malone contacted me (in the 1990s) about the Red Mass and starting the St. Thomas More Society, I felt like that was a good cause.”
James said that as the need for justice has become more prevalent in recent years, the Red Mass and the St. Thomas More Society have become more relevant.
“My thought is even more so now than then, we’re more relevant and more important in this day and time because of all of the violence … the violence that’s being inflicted on the left, on the right and on different faiths is happening today with much more regularity. It just seems to me like the mission of the Red Mass and the St. Thomas More Society is even more important in these days.”
Russell Bailey, president of the St. Thomas More Society of Arkansas, said that the goal of the organization is to remind others about the importance of truth and morality.
“We can learn from St. Thomas More, whether in our personal or professional lives, that we should not compromise our faith for the sake of expediency, trendiness or earthly reward,” he said. “This rings especially true for lawyers, and is found in the closing words of the Prayer of St. Thomas More, ‘I shall not, in order to win a point, lose my soul.’”
Connie Brown Phillips, an attorney and law professor in Little Rock, said she remembers a speech retired Archbishop J. Peter Sartain gave when he celebrated the Red Mass years ago.
“It is a ‘practice pointer’ I share with my law students — ‘Take your clients very seriously. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Be a class act,’” Phillips said. “… It is a statement that those of us present remember well.”
