page_title: Dallin H. Oaks
section_title: LDS Church service
hierarchical_section_title: Dallin H. Oaks / LDS Church service
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped from a photograph of Dallin H. Oaks pointing out details on a genealogy chart to US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, while Thomas S. Monson observes. This compilation of Obama's genealogy information was a gift of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
context_page_description: Dallin Harris Oaks is an American jurist, educator, and religious leader who since 2018 has been the First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was called as a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1984. Currently, he is the second most senior apostle by years of service and is the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. However, consistent with long-established practice, due to Oaks serving in the First Presidency, M. Russell Ballard currently serves as the quorum's acting president.
  Oaks was born and raised in Provo, Utah. He studied accounting at Brigham Young University, then went to law school at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review and graduated in 1957 with a J.D. cum laude. After law school, Oaks clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren at the U.S. Supreme Court. After three years as an associate at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, Oaks returned to the University of Chicago in 1961 as a professor of law. He taught at Chicago until 1971, when he was chosen to succeed Ernest L. Wilkinson as the president of BYU.
context_section_description: In 1961, Oaks served as the stake mission president in the LDS Church's Chicago Illinois Stake.  Then in 1963, he served as the second counselor in the presidency of the Chicago Illinois South Stake. He later served briefly as the first counselor in the same stake in 1970 but was released when he was appointed as BYU's president and moved to Utah.
caption: Dallin H. Oaks (right) with LDS Church president Thomas S. Monson (left) and U.S. President Barack Obama (center) in the Oval Office on 20 July 2009, presenting a personal volume of President Obama's family history as a gift from the LDS Church.
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