Gregory P. Hawkins (born September 22, 1957) is an American speaker, writer, teacher, lawyer and former elected official.
Personal information
Born on September 22, 1957, Hawkins is the son of Joye (née Strange) and Paul Edward Hawkins. Hawkins is a fifth generation Utahn, his great-great-grandmother having arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with one of the first handcart companies. His father served with the U.S. Army occupation force in Germany after World War II and received a commission to the U.S. Air Force upon graduating from the University of Utah. Hawkins lived outside Utah during most of his childhood because his father's military and work assignments took the family to California, Hawaii, Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky.
As a young man, Hawkins worked in a fast food restaurant, hardware store, a landscaping business, and as an electrician's assistant. He started his first business when he was 12 years old setting up a concessions stand at a recreation center in Florida. Hawkins' entrepreneurial spirit continued through his youth: he built and sold surfboards, marketed farm supplies, painted houses, and cleaned carpets.Hawkins graduated from Kentucky's Bardstown High School in 1974. He then served an LDS mission. After his service, Hawkins began his studies at the University of Utah, but transferred to Brigham Young University in 1979. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in Political Science in 1981. After graduation, Hawkins obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Utah in 1984. Hawkins is married to Arlene Joy Van Der Beek.
Speaker
Hawkins has been both a public speaker and a professional speaker since the 1980s. He has spoken in hundreds of settings, thousands of times to tens of thousands of people. Some of his speeches have been reduced to written and CD form. Currently, Hawkins speaks on topics ranging from law to ethics to faith to public policy. Some of these have been organized into keynote, half-day, and full-day seminars; especially designed for professional continuing education and corporate training.
Writer
Hawkins has written articles that have been published in over 40 publications on subjects ranging from legal topics to management to American political philosophy to ethics. He published his first book in 2012 – Jesus was Adopted: Triumph of the Human Spirit from the Lives of Celebrated People Who Were Adopted—reworked and republished under the title We Were Adopted. Hawkins's second book was published in early 2014 and co-authored with Lonn Litchfield – Corruption: Fraud, Embezzlement, and Other Bad Acts and the Auditors that Found Them. Hawkins' third book was also published in 2014, titled, Citizenship: An Introduction to Social Ethics Re-examined. His most recent book, It's "B," a Different Kind of Hero. He continues to write articles and work on book projects. The book he cherishes most is , DEAR CHILDREN, Your Father's Assurance of Things Hope for.
Teacher
Hawkins began working for the educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as a seminary teacher in 1986. His first assignment was at the seminary adjacent to West High School in Salt Lake City. While continuing his work at West High, he began teaching Institute classes at the University of Utah Law School in 1993. Hawkins became the principal of the West High seminary in 1997 until he quit in 1999 in order to run for the U.S. Senate.After the campaign in 2000, Hawkins returned to teaching. He began work at the Institute adjacent to Salt Lake Community College campus, where he later became the Director. In 2002, he finished his time in Church Education in order to spend more time on his private law practice and public policy.
Lawyer
Hawkins has practiced law for over 38 years. He has successfully handled cases from complex brain injury to routine soft tissue injury, from medical malpractice to products liability, from trademark infringement to securities fraud, from sexual harassment to federal civil rights, from slip and fall to dog bites, from simple real estate to complex contract disputes, from protection of parental rights to termination of parental rights.
An adoptive father himself, Hawkins has been described "as one of the most experienced and knowledgeable adoption lawyers in the state." He has finalized and litigated hundreds of adoptions.
Today, Hawkins focuses his entire practice on legally preparing clients for death – Trust Centered Estate Planning. His primary focus is to keep clients and their families out of court through proper legal preparation and to achieve their estate planning goals.