Regent Law News

Regent University law school alumnus Sharla Mylar serves as the Special Assistant Attorney General in Alaska Department of Law. - Image courtesy, Sharla Mylar. Lost in in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela as a 19-year-old exchange student, Sharla Mylar (SOL ’18) told God this was his second chance. His chance to speak to her. With little knowledge of the language, no memory of her local address, and an unreliable sense of direction, she couldn’t find her way home. “Isn’t this what You do? Find lost people,” she prayed. Lost Mylar was, and not just geographically. A few days earlier, her faith had taken a hit when she heard the extremely negative impression fellow students had of Christians. She had asked God to speak to her so that she could believe in Him. He chose that day to speak. A “God-thought” came to Mylar to “turn left,” and then another thought and another, guiding her from street to street, till she found her way home. “Re-meeting Jesus” that day was a tur...

Delegate Tom Fast (Law ’93) has been representing the 32nd District of West Virginia in the West Virginia House of Delegates since 2015. Against towering odds, Fast was elected in 2014 as the first Republican representative in Fayette County in 86 years and was reelected to a second term in 2016. Since 2015, Tom has served on multiple committees in the State House, starting in the Judicial Committee and being promoted to Chairman of the Industry and Labor Committee and Co-Chairman of the Jails and Prisons Committee. He has been proud to be a co-sponsor on a number of successful bills, including a few pro-life bills that passed despite significant opposition. His current success in office has been the result of many years of perseverance. He ran for State Senate in 1998 and State House in 2000 and 2002 without success. But, this time, he could feel things would be different. Despite the adversity that he knew running again could bring, Tom remembers it hitting him when he woke up on...

Regent University School of Law and School of Business and Leadership alum Rebekah Woods will step into the position of president at Columbia Basin College this fall. She is the first female president of Columbia Basin College. Woods previously served as Lansing Community College’s dean of Student and Academic Support and Strategic Enrollment Management. She then took up the position of provost for Jackson College. She was received into Aspen Institute’s 2017-2018 Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence. She said those looking to lead — whether in organizations, businesses, or higher education — should not only stay humble, life-long learners, but to “find a place that is a good fit for you where you can make a difference and [where] your natural leadership style is going to be effective.” “Remain true to yourself and who you are as a leader,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should ever feel that they have to change who they are in order to join an organiza...

Regent University School of Law (LAW) alumnus Judge Ronald Salmons ’06 always knew he wanted to be a lawyer. What he didn’t know was when he went back to school as a 40-year-old law student, he’d be simultaneously raising his fifth-grade daughter to share the same passion. But as R. Salmons was taking the bench as Judge of the Family Court of West Virginia, 10th Circuit in Lincoln County and Boone County, West Virginia in early 2017, his daughter, Karrah Salmons ’19 (LAW), began pursuing her own legal career as a Master’s in Law student at Regent. Photo courtesy of Judge Ronald Salmons. “I told my dad back [when he was a law student] that I never wanted to be an attorney, I thought they were really stuck up,” she said. Salmons vaguely recalls her family’s move from West Virginia to Virginia Beach all those years ago. And when she returned to Regent to pursue her own degree, she recalled some of the friendly faces of her professors from when she’d visit classes with her fat...

Regent University School of Law alumnus Gabriel McCoy (’11) had never been a part of a Christian higher education institution before. He recalls very clearly week one, first semester of his 1L year. “I remember telling my dad that I never met so many people that were as intelligent, hard-working, hungry to compete and loved the Lord all at the same time,” said McCoy. “The caliber of people were elevated, and it was fun to run with this pack of motivated folks.” To this day, McCoy still runs with his “Regent pack,” after co-founding Pierce/McCoy, PLLC, with Regent Law alumnus Nathaniel Pierce ’08 in April 2013. The firm, based in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, serves clients in Hampton Roads, Richmond, Texas, New York and even Serbia. The decision to begin the daunting, yet “adventurous” task of beginning a firm came at a time when the legal market was extremely competitive and the “opportunities were few and far between.” McCoy walked in faith and in prayer asked that the Lord w...

Two paths diverge in a wood, and Regent University School of Law alumnus Justice Daniel Kelly ’91 took the road that led to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Justice Daniel Kelly. The newly appointed justice calls his life a “winding road,” after growing up in Santa Barbara, California and just outside of Denver, Colorado. He landed in Wisconsin to pursue his undergraduate degree, where he met his wife. “I’ve been terribly blessed by the places I’ve been able to call home,” said Kelly. Another one of those places? Regent University. Kelly returned to campus for the first time this fall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Regent Law Review – he served as the publication’s first-ever editor-in-chief. “It’s phenomenal, this campus has changed so much it was hard to recognize,” said Kelly. “Except for the library, of course, I spent nearly all of my time there.” Kelly’s professional path follows a roundabout pattern as well, returning to Wi...

Allen Anjo (Law, RSG '13) Allen Anjo (RSG, Law ’13) and his wife, Julie, are missionaries and Legal Advisors to Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a missions organization that currently works in over 1,100 locations in more than 180 countries to send volunteer missionaries around the world to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Allen and Julie are part of the General Counsel’s office at the YWAM base in Kona, Hawaii, and are about to launch a School of, Advocacy, Law and Justice which will provide training in legal advocacy to missionaries who are passionate about seeing the justice of God come to the “least of these” throughout the world. Allen is originally from the small province of Nagaland in northeastern India, and he came to the United States in 2000 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in business and computer science. The Lord then called  him to attend Liberty University in western Virginia. He said, “That is where I met Julie; she was among the inaugural class of the law school ...

Chuck Slemp (’10), a graduate of Regent University with dual degrees from the Robertson School of Government and the School of Law, was recently elected as Commonwealth Attorney for Wise County, Virginia. After a hard-fought campaign, Slemp was elected on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 with over 57% of the vote and took office on January 1st. Slemp grew up on a farm in Wise County in a family with a long history of involvement in politics, which he says instilled in him a sense of responsibility to serve and help others from an early age. After receiving his undergraduate degree in business administration, he came to Regent University where he completed a master’s degree in law & public policy and a juris doctorate from the schools of government and law; he was awarded Outstanding Graduate for the Robertson School of Government in 2010. Reflecting on his time at Regent, Slemp said: “My wife and I are blessed to be part of the Regent University family. We both worked and studied at Reg...

Kerriel Bailey is an advocate for children as a Guardian Ad Litem in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Her persistence in seeking justice for the kids she represents precipitated her award as “Champion for Children” in the legal field in 2014. Outside of her work in family law, Kerriel also co-authored “ They’ve Crossed the Line: A Patriot’s Guide to Religious Freedom ” and works as an Adjunct Professor at Regent University. Kerriel’s journey to Regent Law and to a legal career started when she was already a homeschooling mom taking care of two boys. While in college, the birth of her son, Aaron, prevented her from finishing school, but she was inspired much later at a family member’s graduation ceremony to go back with hopes of finishing her Bachelor’s degree within ten years. It was her experience as an undergraduate student at a secular college that sparked Kerriel’s interest in the law and her passion for bringing justice to those who have no voice. As she progressed through her Americ...

Stephen Pfeiffer is a partner at Wolcott Rivers and Gates, one of the oldest and largest law firms in Virginia Beach. Stephen practices primarily in criminal defense on the state and federal levels, but he specializes in DUI defense, and is known by many as the “go-to lawyer” for DUI/DWI in his area. He lives in Virginia Beach with his wife Shelly, whom he met in law school at Regent, their two children, and his father. Stephen’s journey to Regent University’s School of Law began with a major shift in his life during the final year of his undergraduate studies. As a college football player, Stephen’s relationship with God and the church was distant and often non-existent throughout his time in college, but during his senior year, the message of the gospel changed his heart and he decided to put his life in God’s hands. As a new and maturing believer, going to a law school with Christian values was a must for Stephen, and Regent’s robust Christian values and decorated faculty caught...

Kristen Waggoner ’97 is the Senior Vice President of Legal Services and Senior Counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization that advocates for people’s right to live out their faith through efforts in strategy, training, funding, and litigation. Kristen has been passionate about defending religious freedom since she first felt God calling her to the practice of law at the age of thirteen, and now she finds herself on the front lines of ADF’s efforts to combat attacks on religious freedom in the U.S. in the past months. While enrolled in Regent University’s School of Law, Kristen served on law review and moot court, and after graduating Cum Laude in 1997, Kristen clerked for Justice Richard Sanders on the Washington Supreme Court. She then joined Ellis, Li & McKinstry PLLC, a general practice law firm in Seattle. While at ELM, Kristen’s practice focused mainly on representation of religious organizations, and she defended churches, pastors, and Christian...