Philosophy & Mission
Practice Ready, Purpose Driven
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (NIV)
At Regent University School of Law, academic excellence, coupled with an emphasis on spiritual integrity, educates a different kind of lawyer, uniquely prepared to practice law. Here you can be trained not only to practice law, but you can also be well-equipped to enter the legal profession as a fully integrated lawyer with a thorough knowledge of the law, the practice skills to put that knowledge to use, and the character necessary to succeed with integrity.
Our commitment to faith-law integration is woven into our curriculum, as our faculty, dedicated to Christ’s call both personally and professionally, provide a caring and nurturing environment in which students gain an understanding of the foundations of law and learn to develop the ethical and moral code required for the recognition and resolution of ethical dilemmas. Additionally, students are encouraged to explore the call of God on their lives, the gifts God has given them, and discover how this translates into the practice of law.
Law is both practical and theoretical. At Regent Law, we emphasize both. We give great weight to the practical, experiential side of legal education. Students at Regent Law are trained to be not only purpose driven but also practice ready. In addition to mentorship and internship opportunities, Regent students can receive hands-on experience at Regent’s Legal Aid Clinic, Robertson Center for Constitutional Law, Center for Ethical Formation, and Center for Global Justice. Our classroom instruction, coupled with various scholastic practica, aims to give graduates the essential skill sets necessary to practice law in its many, disparate specialties.
That said, we also educate students on the theoretical aspects of our legal canon. American law was rooted in the classical liberalism of the Western intellectual tradition and carried to our shores in the form of English common-law traditions with natural-law antecedents. American constitutionalism synthesized these First Principles in a virtuous effort “to form a more perfect Union” committed to justice, tranquility, and the “Blessings of Liberty.” It is essential, we believe (as did Martin Luther King Jr.) that modern jurisprudential debates take into account the sages of the past (St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, referenced in King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail) as well as the views of modern intellectuals. In short, we take history seriously. Both the present and the future depend on it.
It is through our rigorous legal education in the context of a supportive Christian community that our students are equipped to be practice-ready, purpose-driven graduates with the confidence and spiritual integrity to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God as Christian leaders who will change the world.
Regent University serves as a center of Christian thought and action to provide excellent education through a biblical perspective and global context, equipping Christian leaders to change the world. These values permeate the law school. Our mission is to provide an excellent legal education from a Christian perspective, to nurture and encourage our students toward spiritual maturity, and to engage the world through Christian legal thought and practice.
The law school mission includes:
- Education and training of students to become excellent lawyers.
- Nurturing and encouragement of students to become mature Christians who are empowered with the Holy Spirit and display the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their personal and professional lives while impacting the world.
- The grounding of students in the biblical foundations of law, legal institutions, and processes of conflict resolution; the recognition of questions of righteousness in the operation of law; and the pursuit of true justice through professional legal service.
- Community of other law students, practicing lawyers, judges, legislators, government officials, educators, and others to recognize and seek the biblical foundations of law, legal institutions, and the processes of conflict resolution; to recognize questions of righteousness in the operation of the law; and to pursue true justice through professional legal service.
The Law School is committed to five core values:
- Christ-Centered Community: Our professors and students support, encourage, and pray for each other. We seek to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—in all we do.
- Truth: We don’t think law is just a competition among advocates – it is a search for truth and a way to live out a calling to serve a God who calls himself the way the truth and the life. We aspire to be a community of truth and learning. And we believe that as we pursue truth and knowledge—we not only become excellent lawyers—but also our spirits are refreshed and our minds are renewed.
- Servant Leadership: We seek to equip men and women to be leaders. But we want to train lawyers who are a particular type of leaders – servant leaders who make a difference in the lives of their clients and communities.
- Discipleship: We train servant leaders through discipleship. Professors invest in the lives of our students – shaping them as lawyers and followers of Christ.
- Advocacy: Regent Law seeks to train, inspire, and launch advocates into positions of service and influence around the world. Our Center for Constitutional Law trains advocates to protect free speech and religious liberty. Our Center for Global Justice prepares lawyers to advocate for those who are abused, oppressed, or enslaved around the world. Our pro bono clinic works with people who cannot afford a lawyer to ensure they have an advocate who can seek justice. We equip all students with hands-on skills training so that our graduates are both purpose-driven and practice-ready.