Who We Are
CLS Fellows
Get Updates
Attorney Ministries
Christian Legal Aid
Center for Law and Religious Freedom
Who We Are
Christian Legal Society’s Law Student Ministries (LSM) ministers to thousands of students on more than 150 law school campuses and at strategic Christian colleges across the country.
Our mission is to nurture and encourage Christian law students by providing mentors and resources aimed at fostering spiritual growth, compassionate outreach, and the integration of faith and practice and to establish and maintain vibrant witnessing communities of law students on every law school campus in the nation and at key Christian colleges.
In carrying out that mission, LSM affirms that the Lord, “a God of justice” (Isaiah 30:18), is the supreme lawgiver and that higher law serves as an immutable standard by which to assess human law.
LSM regards the next generation of lawyers as a strategic people group and counts it a privilege to reach out to law and prelaw students who will be redeeming influences in the profession and the world. By virtue of their calling, every student will have the opportunity to glorify God and work for His kingdom. We must continue together in this task to “Learn to do Justice with the Love of God.”
Yet law students desiring to submit every aspect of their calling to the Lord are confronted with serious challenges in the legal academy. LSM seeks to support students as they seek to develop and use their gifts for the good of their neighbors and the glory of God.
OUR MISSION
To nurture and encourage Christian law students by providing mentors and resources aimed at fostering:
- spiritual growth,
- compassionate outreach, and
- the integration of faith, study, and practice.
And to establish and maintain vibrant witnessing communities of law students on every law school campus in the nation and at key Christian colleges.
OUR OBJECTIVES
Our mission is developed through four foundational objectives of CLS’ ministry:
GATHERING LAW STUDENTS ON CAMPUS
The first, and most modest, objective in fulfilling the CLS mission is simply an invitation: we want to bring students and lawyers into community by encouraging them to gather locally or to simply identify as Christ-followers. We desire to extend an invitation for law students on campus to stand up and say “I’m with Him.” Yet this goal is central. As law students who follow Jesus, we provide encouragement to our brothers and sisters in the profession.
FOSTERING SPIRITUAL FORMATION
The second objective is to assist law students as they become more Christ-like in the context of preparation for law practice. We all recognize that there are unique challenges, temptations, and issues facing Christian lawyers and law students, and our “lay” friends, including pastors and mentors, do not always understand the issues we face. Whether it be the time crunch of memo writing in law school, the pressures of partner-track politics at the big firm, the stress of preparing for trial, or the intricacies of an ethical dilemma, faithful responses are not easy to come by. Sharing with a brother or sister in Christ who “gets” the issue is often the most significant step on the way to spiritual understanding.
ENCOURAGING VOCATIONAL STEWARDSHIP
The third foundational objective of LSM centers on the lawyer’s calling. We want to help law students develop a well-defined understanding of Christian vocation and how it works itself out in law study and practice.
SUPPORTING CHRISTIAN SERVICE TO THE CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
Finally, Law Student Ministries seeks to encourage Christian law students to reach out to their campuses with the love of Christ. This element of service is a natural outgrowth of gathering together, growing spiritually, and thinking carefully about vocation. After all, if we see our legal gifts as given to us for the benefit of others, one of our critical tasks will be identifying those that might benefit from what we have.
FULFILLING OUR MISSION
A National and Local Network of Christian Attorneys and Law Students
CLS connects students with Christian attorneys to encourage, pray for, and mentor students. Attorneys and students meet and develop relationships through the CLS attorney chapters across the country, as well as through an annual national conference and several regional retreats. One of the great joys of being part of CLS and Law Student Ministries is being part of a movement that is bigger than one’s campus or the local bar association.
Resources Developed Specifically for Law Students
We have a library of resources, including Bible studies, podcasts, videos, blogs, and devotionals, developed with law students in mind, LSM wants to help students address the challenges they face in the study and future practice of law. Check out our resources page for a listing.
LSM Team
Anton Sorkin
Director, Law Student Ministries
Mike Schutt
Brent Amato
Barnabas Fellow, Chicagoland
Michelle Williams
Program Coordinator, Law Student Ministries
David Nammo
Executive Director & CEO
Courtney Herron
Director, Development
& Communications
Brent Amato
Brent practiced transactional law in the Chicago area for forty years, specializing in corporate business and non-profit work. That practice was split about equally between private practice as a partner at two law firms and in-house corporate practice for two publicly-traded companies, first as an Associate Counsel and then as General Counsel. As of December 31, 2014 he retired from the practice of law.
Brent has sought to integrate his Christian faith and his law practice through (i) the Christian Legal Society (as former Board member and President and now Staff member, working with lawyers and law students); (ii) Peacemaker Ministries and Crossroads Resolution Group (as a Certified Christian Conciliator for conflict resolution, mentor and teacher); (iii) Administer Justice (whose mission is to meet the legal and spiritual needs of the poor) and (iv) Judson University (as a Business Law Adjunct Professor).
Over these years, Brent has been a speaker and teacher at national, regional and local law-related conferences.
Brent serves as an Elder, Community Group Coordinator and Leader at his Church.
Sports and grandparenting are his two favorite extra-curricular activities.
Brent is married to Sherrie (his “better seven-eights”) and has been blessed with two children and six grandchildren.
Courtney Herron
Director, Development & Communications
Courtney Herron is the the director of development and communications for Christian Legal Society. A graduate of Regent University (M.A. Political Management) and the University of Central Florida (B.A. Political Science/Business), she has worked in nonprofit fundraising since 2002. An advocate for underserved communities, she recently served on the Board of Directors of Let My People Go, a national nonprofit ministry dedicated to empowering the local church to fight human trafficking, and is a foster care advocate in her community.
David Nammo
Executive Director
& CEO
David Nammo has served as executive director and CEO of Christian Legal Society since 2012.
He is the former executive vice president of the Leadership Project for America, where he worked closely with conservative leaders such as former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese, Publisher Al Regnery, Club for Growth founder Steve Moore, and U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, in preparation for the 2012 election cycle.
He also was the executive director of the Family Research Council Action (FRCA), the 501(c)(4) arm of the Family Research Council, where he worked on political issues, interfaced with Congress, and met with candidates from across the country. He also started the first PAC for the Family Research Council and engaged in the 2008 election cycle in over 40 states.
David consulted and worked for a variety of employers over several years, including Gammon & Grange, a Virginia law firm; defense consultants for the Defense Intelligence Agency, and as a sole practitioner practicing trademark and business contract law. His prior employment at the Christian Legal Society was as the former director of attorney and law student ministries of Christian Legal Society. He also helped found the IVCF/CLS joint taskforce and restarted The Christian Lawyer magazine in 2005.
He has been interviewed by national and international media, including the NBC Nightly News, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBN News, as well as various radio stations from across the country and around the globe. His op-eds have been published in USA Today, the Washington Times, the National Review, and many online news sites. Prior to attending law school at both George Mason University School of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law, David worked as a journalist for the Fox News Service, a Middle East wire service, and WTTG-TV in Washington D.C.
David writes an occasional blog called Babylonian Thoughts, given his Chaldean heritage, as the son of a Christian-Iraqi. He is co-owner of a record label out of Southern California. He resides in Northern Virginia with Laura, his wife (a patent attorney), their six children, a cat, and a St. Bernard dog.
Mike Schutt
Director, Law School Fellows
Mike Schutt is the director of CLS Law School Fellows program. He worked for CLS for nearly 20 years but is now the CEO of Worldview Academy. He continues to run our Fellows program because he remains passionate about helping law students understand their calling. Professor Schutt taught at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach and practiced law in Fort Worth, Texas with Thompson & Knight. He is an honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.
Mike is the author of Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (InterVarsity Press 2007), a vocational exhortation for law students and lawyers. 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 principles for use by his students in the law school classroom.
He lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas, with his wife, Lisa. They share three children, three children-in-love, and many beautiful grandchildren.
Anton Sorkin
Director, Law Student Ministries
Anton Sorkin is the director of Law Student Ministries at Christian Legal Society. He previously practiced employment law and religious freedom litigation. His research and writing is focused on the confluence of law, religion, and public policy – with a number of academic publications in journals that range from the University of Memphis Law Review, Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, and the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Anton has presented his research in various international and domestic forums, including at St. Hugh’s College in Oxford, England; Pepperdine University in Malibu, California; and the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada.
Anton earned a doctorate (SJD) at Emory University School of Law under the supervision of Professor John Witte. He also received an LLM from Emory in law and religion, a JD from Regent University School of Law, and an engineering degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
In his free time, Anton likes discovering new music, attending film festivals, discussing political theology, and dabbling in the game of golf. He has a passion for strengthening Christian students to live out their faith in the complexity of the modern condition. He also seeks to engage in pressing questions of concern by studying various mediums through which pain is processed and displayed.
