James R. Rasband

James R. Rasband was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 2019. At the time of his call to full-time Church service, he was the Academic Vice President at Brigham Young University, a position he held since June 2017. He served as dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School from 2009 to 2016. He had been on the faculty of the law school since 1995 and had been the Hugh W. Colton Professor of Law. He also practiced law in Seattle, Washington, for five years.

Rasband was born on March 20, 1963, in Seattle and grew up in Pebble Beach, California. After he graduated from high school, he attended BYU prior to serving as a full-time missionary in the Korea Seoul Mission. He returned to BYU to complete his bachelor’s degree in English and Near Eastern studies and then obtained a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

He and his wife, Mary Diane Williams, are the parents of four children. He has also served in the Church as an Area Seventy, stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, bishop, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and ward Young Men president.