Gayla Sorenson, Dean of Admissions at BYU's Law School, will deliver the Devotional address.
Sorenson's remarks will be broadcast live on BYUtv, BYUtv.org (and archived for on-demand streaming), KBYU-TV 11, Classical 89 FM, BYU Radio, and will be archived on speeches.byu.edu.
Gayla Moss Sorenson graduated from BYU magna cum laude with a B.S. in Accounting and then earned her J.D. cum laude from BYU Law School. At the law school, she participated in Moot Court, represented the school at a national level, and was a member of the Order of Barristers. Beginning her legal career at the law firm Lewis & Roca in Phoenix, she moved to Motorola as in-house counsel working as a litigator, then a commercial attorney supporting global transactions, and finally ending her twenty years there as a Vice President and senior legal advisor.
Following her marriage, she left Motorola, moved to Indiana, and became the Director of Global Compliance Operations for Biomet, Inc., a medical device company. Here she focused on promoting compliance with anti-corruption laws and on implementing recently issued regulations associated with the Affordable Care Act. Three years ago her career took an unexpected turn when she accepted her current position as Dean of Admissions for BYU Law School, combining her passion for legal education, her love of BYU, and the opportunity to meet amazing potential law students while associating with dedicated, talented colleagues. In 2016 the students of BYU Law honored her with the Student Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
Sorenson’s legal training has empowered her to serve in numerous settings. For many years, her volunteer work focused on children as she served on a local Big Brothers/Big Sisters Board of Directors and acted as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. She actively participates in the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and has served as a Senior Fellow with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. She has spoken in venues ranging from Clark Law Society conferences to BYU Education Week to help raise awareness about the importance of religious freedom for people of all faiths.
As a member of a large, close-knit family, she cherishes her relationships with parents, six siblings, their spouses, and twenty-one nieces and nephews. In her mid-forties, mutual friends set her up with Ferril Sorenson whose wife had died from cancer a year earlier. Following a long-distance courtship (she lived in Philadelphia, and he lived in San Francisco), they were married. Sorenson became a wife, mother, and grandmother all on the same day. In the decade since, this large, close-knit family has expanded to include additional in-laws and twelve grandchildren.