Richard Wilkins

Richard G. Wilkins (December 12, 1952 – November 26, 2012) was an American lawyer and proponent of a socially conservative view of marriage and the family. He was the Robert W. Barker Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School which is part of Brigham Young University (BYU) until his retirement. He also served as the director of the World Family Policy Center at BYU which was affiliated with the Clark Law School and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. He was an assistant to the solicitor general of the United States in the 1980s. Wilkins was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a mission for the church in Italy in the 1970s. Wilkins received a Joseph Fielding Smith scholarship to BYU. He graduated at the top of his class in the BYU School of Fine Arts and Communication. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism. As a student at J. Reuben Clark Law School he was the top of his class and was the editor-in-chief of the Brigham Young University law review. He then worked as a law clerk for Robert A. Ainsworth Jr. Wilkins was the Assistant Solicitor General under Rex E. Lee. While in this position he argued eight cases before the Supreme Court. He wrote the brief that Lee used to argue the government case in Akron Center for Reproductive Health v. The State of Ohio. He also drafted the legislation regulating abortion passed by the Utah legislature in the early 1990s.