After graduating from law school, Christofferson was a law clerk to Judge John Sirica of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 1972 to 1974. Soon after Christofferson began his clerkship, Sirica was assigned to preside over the Watergate legal proceedings.[3] Sirica and Christofferson were the first outside the White House to hear the Nixon White House tapes. "Judge Sirica and I were shocked as we heard Nixon calmly ask how much money it would take to keep the Watergate burglars quiet," Christofferson said in a June 2017 address to faculty and students at Christ Church College in Oxford, England. "The judge and I couldn't believe, didn't want to believe what we were hearing … He passed me a note suggesting we rewind the tape and listen again. Up to this point we both still hoped that the president [of the United States] was not really involved, but this was indisputable."[4]
At the conclusion of his clerkship, Christofferson spent a year as an active duty member of the U.S. military.[5][6] He then spent several years in private practice at the Washington, D.C. law firm Dow Lohnes (now part of Cooley LLP) before becoming an in-house legal counsel for a healthcare corporation and for several banking companies.[6][7] At the time of his call as an LDS general authority in 1993, Christofferson worked in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an associate general counsel for NationsBank (now Bank of America).[6][8]
Personal life
Christofferson married Katherine Jacob in the Salt Lake Temple on May 28, 1968.[2] They are the parents of five children.[7]
As a seventy, Christofferson served as the executive director of the church's Family and Church History Department. While in this position he was involved in negotiations with Jewish leaders on policies on temple work for Holocaust victims, which concluded with the church stating that its members should only do such temple work for family members. He also was in charge of the department when the church completed the Freedman's Savings Bank Records project.[3]
On October 14, 2025, Christofferson was announced as the new second counselor to church president Dallin H. Oaks in the First Presidency, with Henry B. Eyring serving as first counselor.[12] As a member of the First Presidency, Christofferson is regarded by church members as a prophet, seer, and revelator.
↑ Apostolic seniority is generally understood to include all ordained apostles (including the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On October 14, 2025, Dallin H. Oaks called him to serve in the First Presidency of the church. Seniority is determined by date of ordination, not by age or other factors. If two apostles are ordained on the same day, the older of the two is typically ordained first. See Succession to the presidency and Heath, Steven H. (Summer 1987). "Notes on Apostolic Succession"(PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 20 (2): 44–56. doi:10.2307/45216003. JSTOR45216003..
1 2 In 1837 the callings of Church Historian and Church Recorder were separated, but in 1842 these callings were again merged.
↑ Starting in 1978, the duties of Church Historians fell to the Executive director of the historical department.
↑ While Larsen was still technically Church Historian until 1997, others succeeded him as Executive Director of the Historical Department, and those men were sometimes referred to as the Official Church Historians.
↑ In 2005 the callings of Church Historian and Church Recorder was restored.
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