A Vision for Cooperative Ministry

In the fall of 2000, the Christian Legal Society and Regent University School created the Institute for Christian Legal Studies as a ministry to law students and professors who desire to teach, study, and write about the law from a Christian perspective.  This project sprung from the desire of the Regent Law School Dean and a group of Regent law professors to encourage law students at other law schools to engage in serious biblical thinking about the law.

It was natural that the Christian Legal Society and Regent University School of Law should join together in ministry to law students. Since the inception of Law Student Ministries, CLS has encouraged budding Christian lawyers to "do justice with the love of God." Likewise, since its founding, Regent Law has sought to train lawyers who integrate their Christian faith and practice. Through ICLS, they will carry out their mission together.

While law students across the country are hungry for a principled, biblical approach to the study and practice of law, their Christian law professors, with virtually no support from their colleagues and institutions, are unable to devote much time or effort to serious biblical thinking about the law. The students, likewise, are unable to bring theological thinking to bear on their studies. Today's students are either theologically unprepared or too swamped with law school to do the work necessary to uncover the rich treasures available to assist them in integrating faith and learning.

The mission of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies is to help students and professors tackle the difficulties of integration of faith and life in the law. Building on the heritage of LSM directors Charlie Emmerich, Dan Babarik, and David Nammo, ICLS will continue to challenge law students and law professors in the areas of spiritual formation, the integration of faith and learning, and compassionate outreach to the poor and needy.

ICLS currently uses a variety of vehicles to reach these goals. First, it offers print and Internet resources for law students and professors to assist them in studying, understanding, and writing about the law from a Christian perspective. The goal here is integration of a distinctively Christian perspective into the substantive areas of the law: Students should approach Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Legal Ethics, Mediation, and every other subject from a biblical perspective, applying God's truth to all that they do. Second, ICLS trains and encourages mentors who are on or near law school campuses, so that law students will have men and women "on-site" who are ready and able to mentor students in fulfilling Christ's calling in their studies.

Third, in relationship with CLS student chapters and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA, ICLS staff will visit law school campuses to meet with law students and professors, simply encouraging them in spiritual formation, in integration of faith and scholarship, and in outreach to the poor. ICLS will maintain the contacts developed on these visits to bring together students and faculty as part of a coherent, national network of Christian students and mentors.

In short, ICLS seeks to challenge law students to faithful academic focus, a deep intimacy with the Savior, and real concern for those in need. We ask for your prayers as we undertake this exciting ministry.

ICLS Director Michael P. Schutt

Mike Schutt is the director of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies (ICLS), a cooperative ministry of CLS and Regent University School of Law, where he is Associate Professor. His subjects include Torts, Legal Ethics, and Business Associations, among others, and he has written and taught on the relationship of lawyers, faith, and culture. He is the author of Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (InterVarsity Press 2007), a vocational exhortation on integrity for law students and lawyers.

He also serves InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as national coordiator if its Law School Ministry, and is the CLS Law Student Ministries director.  Before joining the Regent faculty, Professor Schutt practiced law in Fort Worth, Texas with Thompson & Knight. He is an honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. 

His other publications include Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Decline of the American Lawyer: Social Engineering, Religion, and the Search for Professional Identity, 30 RUTGERS L. J. 143 (1998) and What's A Nice Christian Like You Doing in a Profession Like This? 11 REGENT U. L. REV. 137 (1998-99). He has also authored supplements on biblical principals for use by his students in the law school classroom.

He writes and travels for the Institute for Christian Legal Studies from his home in Mount Pleasant, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Lisa, and their three children.