Trinity Law Magazine // Fall 2014 by Trinity Law School

F O R F R I E N D S , A D V O C AT E S A N D A L U M N I O F T R I N I T Y L A W S C H O O L

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MAGAZINE

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION OF TRINITY LAW SCHOOL NATIONAL MOOT COURT CHAMPIONS MARGARET HOLTRUST: THE HEART & HANDS OF A SERVANT ENCOURAGING AT-RISK LATINO YOUTH TO THINK AND DREAM BIGGER

LET T E R F RO M T H E E D IT O R

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Dear Friends, On behalf of Trinity Law School, I hope you enjoy this special edition of our semiannual TRINITY LAW MAGAZINE . This is an exhilarating era for the university, as we welcome Trinity International University’s new president, Dr. David S. Dockery. We are blessed that President Dockery and Dean Myron S. Steeves share a mutual vision of cultivating academic excellence while adhering to our Evangelical beliefs. Many prestigious academic institutions have beginnings rooted in Christian mission. However, a significant number have slowly succumbed to a lenient acceptance of secular thinking and rationalized that religious beliefs are strictly a personal matter. At Trinity Law School, we proudly stand by the truths and convictions of our faith. We remain devoted to our Christian roots and the authority of God’s Word. As a result, all classes are taught with an emphasis on the integration of faith and law. We serve Christ by endorsing a biblical view of law and emulating a servant leadership philosophy. To this end, for our inaugural issue, we chose a theme close to our hearts: “Why a Christian Legal Education Matters and The Mission of Trinity Law School.” Trinity Law School believes that Christ’s eternal principles of justice, mercy and truth should guide practitioners of law – whose moral obligation is to defend God-given inalienable rights, liberty, and freedom. Through a faith-based legal education, students gain wisdom, sharpen their critical thinking abilities and develop legal skills to serve others. While my role at Trinity Law School is Chief Advancement Officer, I also have the privilege of also serving as Editor to the magazine. I would like to extend my gratitude to our many gifted friends for their meaningful contributions to TRINITY LAW MAGAZINE . Also, I am appreciative of our loyal benefactors for their advocacy of our mission and for their generous gifts. Lastly, a personal thank you to Dean Steeves, Mike Peterson and Michelle Eaton for their time, talents and investments. Our stories of Trinity Law School via this publication would not have come to fruition without their efforts and encouragement. Trinity’s sincere hope is that our shared values will inspire you to champion our pursuit of justice in honor of the Lord. May God bless you. Best Regards,

M ARCI A L E E KE L LY

Chief Advancement Officer, Trinity Law School Editor, Trinity Law Magazine

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T H OU G H T S F RO M T HE D E A N

As the Dean of Trinity Law School, it is my great pleasure to offer you an introduction to the academic philosophy of the law school, which is rooted in the belief that it is essential to espouse both academic excellence and the Christian discipleship of students. Trinity is one of only a handful of law schools in the country that is unabashedly Evangelical. But our aim is not simply to train lawyers who happen to be Christian. It is to inspire students to take their law degrees and make an impact for Christianity. Our undertaking is to provide a quality legal education that fully integrates a biblical Christian worldview with a deep practical understanding of the law. In 1980 a Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professor named John Warwick Montgomery envisioned a law school rooted in apologetics, law and human rights. He was alarmed by the lack of engagement of Christians with legal issues of great magnitude, like Roe v. Wade. The school’s history can be traced through its humble beginnings as the Simon Greenleaf School of Law – named after Simon Greenleaf, an early 19th century Harvard Law professor who had written a book about the examination of the Gospels under the rules of evidence. Greenleaf ’s early legal apologetics were an inspiring model for a modern examination of faith and law. Although the name of the school has changed, Trinity Law School is still true to Montgomery's – and Greenleaf's – vision of the integration of faith, social action and the practice of law. What sets Trinity apart from other law schools is how our Christian faith influences our distinct educational philosophy. At our core, the school exists to motivate attorneys who will glorify Jesus Christ by freeing the persecuted, serving the Church, and pursuing the truth to the honor and glory of the Triune God. One of the ways we exemplify this philosophy is by requiring students to take seven units of context classes. These classes give our students the basis for understanding God as the foundation of law and challenge them to think philosophically about what qualities make just laws and good lawyers. The context classes help our students understand the relationship between law and morality in ways not taught by other law schools that teach from a postmodern perspective. The Christian foundation allows students to develop a robust and informed definition of justice. We address the fracture in legal education that has attempted to divorce law from a moral and ethical analysis. We teach and try always to model the deep integration of the law written on our hearts with human law. This leads to training attorneys who can flourish more effectively and work toward bringing justice to the world. We have been blessed with a truly diverse and collegial environment, where our experienced professors, dedicated staff and cherished advocates are able to mentor students to become champions for the oppressed, defenders of justice and seekers of truth. Most importantly, we serve together for the Glory of God and His kingdom. I hope you see the importance of the work we do at Trinity Law School. I hope you feel compelled to partner with us – and that you find us worthy of your generous support and advocacy.

D E A N MYRON S . ST EEV ES

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MAG A ZIN E // C O N T E N T S

FE ATUR ES M ISSION

D I SCI P L ESH I P

E XC E L L E N C E

PH I L A N T H R O P Y

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION OF TRINITY LAW SCHOOL

by Dr. David S. Dockery

ENCOURAGING ATRISK LATINO YOUTH TO THINK AND DREAM BIGGER

TRINITY LAW SCHOOL NATIONAL MOOT COURT CHAMPIONS

MARGARET HOLTRUST: THE HEART & HANDS OF A SERVANT

by Marcia Lee Kelly

by Jessica Frieberg

by Michelle Eaton

“Together and with our Christian friends we were wrestling with questions like,‘What is the place of God in the public square?’” 33

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J USTI CE

BO O K BR I E F S

G U E S T C O L U MNIS T

THEMIS LIVES: A COUNTERCULTURAL VISION OF LAW

IN DEFENSE OF THOSE WHO PURSUE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

by Dr. Thaddeus Williams

by Michael J. Peffer

C O L U MN S

DE PA RTM ENT S

08 Spotlight On Faculty and Alumni

27 Faith + The Marketplace

22 First Class Alumnus: Steve Meline 44 Diversity of Passions 46 Dean's Book Review

BOOK BRIEFS

by Trinity Law School Advocates

NEGATIVE, NEUTRAL OR NURTURING?

by Dr. Jeffery Ventrella

34 Student Groups 36 In The Courtroom 50 Reflections 54 The Sidebar 56 The Information 60 Preparing for the Bar

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CONT R I B UT O RS

MAG AZ I NE

ON TH E COV ER Trinity Law School Class of 2014 graduate Trevor Elste says he chose to get a law degree to help preserve Christian faith in the public square. “I wanted to go to law school because of my desire to see God’s truth represented in the marketplace,” said Elste. Elste was born and raised in Illinois, and he graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He and his wife spent five years doing international missions work before moving to California to enable him to attend Trinity. “There are many law schools I could have attended, but few offer a legal education with a truly Biblical foundation and evangelical focus,” he said. Elste places a premium on a Christian legal Education. “Shaping judicial opinions does not begin in the courtroom, but at the inception of a legal education,” he explained. “This is why it is incredibly important for law students to be exposed to the natural law foundations of justice.” He believes this is best accomplished via an academic experience grounded in the Gospel. Even while pursuing his J.D., Trevor said he wanted “a vibrant walk of faith with a Lord who never fails to make our paths straight.” The Midwesterner applauds Trinity for offering a place to learn the law that is nurturing and even inviting. “There are no pretenses at Trinity. The law school does a great job loving and caring for people similar to what you will find in a church community. “ On a practical note, Elste also appreciates that Trinity is easier on the wallet than most law schools. Trinity enabled me to receive a quality legal education, without experiencing the oftentimes crippling effect of a large student debt, he said. Elste says he plans to practice criminal law.

MAK E JUS T ICE YOUR MIS S ION

Trinity Law School is a part of Trinity International University’s family of schools: Trinity College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Trinity Graduate School and Trinity Law School. An educational ministry of the Evangelical Free Church of America, TIU has more than 3,000 students from 45 countries and throughout the United States. Trinity Law School exists to serve Christ by championing a biblical view of human law and government through our students, graduates, faculty and staff. T RINIT Y LAW MAGAZINE CONT RIBUT ORS :

T RINIT Y LAW S CHOOL ADVIS ORY BOARD:

Dr. David S. Dockery Chris Donato Michelle Eaton Jessica Frieberg Aimee Fukao Dr. David Hoag Tim Holmes Marcia Lee Kelly Professor Melanie Nichols, Esq. Professor Michael Peffer, Esq. Michael Peterson Dean Myron Steeves, Esq. Erik Svendsen Dr. Jeffery Ventrella, Esq. Beth Vogel-Fitzgerald Ian Wiant Dr. Thaddeus Williams Crystal Worley

Howard Ahmanson, Fieldstead and Company Dr. Francis Beckwith, Baylor University David Bahnsen, Morgan Stanley Brad Dacus, Esq., Pacific Justice Institute William Dunlap, W.E. Dunlap Consulting Karen Lugo, Esq., Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Dr. Carl Moeller, Sequoia Global Resources Stuart Orr, Connect2Need Mark Schneider, Esq., Wi-Lan Technologies Michael Schutt, Esq., Christian Legal Society Morse Tan, Esq., Lux Ventures Dr. Jeffery Ventrella, Esq., Alliance Defending Freedom William Wagner, Esq., Salt and Light Global Lawrence Wee, Esq., Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison

Trinity Law Magazine is published semiannually by the Office of Advancement at Trinity Law School for our friends, advocates, and alumni. Thoughts expressed by the authors and their topics do not necessarily represent the official position of Trinity International University. Trinity Law School is located at 2200 North Grand Avenue, Santa Ana, CA., 92705 in Orange County. We may be reached at 714-836-7500. Please find us online at www.tls.edu or join in the conversation on social media: www.facebook.com/TrinityLawSchool LinkedIn (Trinity Law School) @TrinityLawCA or www.twitter.com/trinitylawca www.youtube.com/TrinityLawSchool plus.google.com/+TrinityLawSchoolSantaAna

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Advisory Board Members: William Wagner and Michael Schutt

Trinity Law School Faculty

Advisory Board Members: Larry Wee and Stuart Orr

Mike Peterson, Professor Dana Clark and Professor Adeline Allen

Alumnus Griffith Vertican and Advisory Board Member Mark Schneider

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S POTL I G H T

FAC ULTY SPOTL I G HT D EAN MYRO N S . S T E E V E S thought of the idea in the morning, he registered for the LSAT later that same day. He was drawn to the idea of one day being able to provide legal support for churches and ministries. He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. “I thought law school was paradise, except for finals,” recalls Steeves. “I loved the classes. I loved the learning. I liked the stimulating environment. Those were great years.”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliott, a Christian missionary killed by natives in Ecuador in 1958 Trinity Law School Dean Myron S. Steeves hails from the prairies of Alberta, Canada. But he has called the U.S. home since he was three years old. His family immigrated to America after visiting the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. His father was a doctor. And, his parents served as missionaries in Ethiopia prior to his birth. Christian service has been second nature to Steeves from the start. He earned a degree in Intercultural Studies from Biola University. At the time, this was the “missions” major. After college he joined the Overseas Crusades, now known as O.C. International. There he ran a training program for new missionaries, and opened field offices in India and Egypt. A few years later Steeves chose to go to law school. It was an impulsive decision. Having first

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Steeves found that doing well in law school meant engaging in the subject matter outside of class. He enjoyed discussing the law with fellow students, and reading beyond his casebooks about areas of the law he found particularly appealing, like the freedom of speech. After graduating from Georgetown, Steeves moved to California. He practiced real estate, construction defect and insurance law for seven years. He was then invited to teach at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law, where he worked as an adjunct professor for five years. When the law school merged with Trinity International University, he was hired to be the first full-time law professor at the new Trinity Law School. Steeves taught at Trinity for three years. He left in 2000 to return to law practice, pursuing general business litigation. He also developed a ministrysupport oriented area of practice during this time. He increasingly worked with clients who needed legal help with church governance issues. “I enjoyed my work, but I missed Trinity terribly,” he says. In 2008, Steeves returned to Trinity as the Director of Development. He also taught Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence. He became the dean of the law school in 2010. Steeves says Trinity has shaped his thinking about the law more than any other experience. “I was

only at Georgetown for three years. And I have now been at Trinity for more than 20 years. So I have learned a lot more about the law here than I ever did at Georgetown. Trinity has been very formative regarding my perspective on law and culture, and has impacted my Christian worldview in particular.” Steeves enjoys being able to help educate and train future lawyers. “In litigation you are hired to address things that happened before you came onto the scene,” explains Steeves. “In contrast, when you work in legal education, you have the opportunity to build something of quality and make the law school experience both in and out of the classroom valuable for students. It is tremendously satisfying.” He is particularly pleased at the direction Trinity has been heading in the last four years. “We have introduced a lot of changes that have made the education even better than it was previously.” A new bar prep program, On Course, was launched in Fall 2013. And, Steeves recently opened a mediation center at Trinity that will be staffed by law students interested in learning about alternative dispute resolution (ADR). In his free time, Steeves enjoys visiting the mountains and the beach. "I am both a beach and mountain guy,” he explains. “I live close enough to the beach that I go there almost weekly. The serenity of the beach is very appealing to me. But I also love the mountains, especially in Yosemite. They always fill me with wonder about God's creative work on earth." Steeves also enjoys reading books on history, theology, and philosophy. Steeves is a world traveler, but has resided in just two countries, the U.S. and Canada. He has spent time in France, Germany, Greece, India, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Korea, China, Haiti, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The two places he would love to visit next are Barcelona and Rome. He met his wife Patty in Santa Clara. They have been married for more than 30 years, and have one daughter, Ally.

FAV ORIT E THIN GS THE BIBLE I was raised in a Christian family that took daily reading of the Bible very seriously. My father memorized thousands of verses, and in this way he modeled taking the message of scriptures to heart. I marvel at how much the passage of time impacts my understanding of the Bible. Some of the books that were very difficult to comprehend when I was young, like Job and II Corinthians, have become clear in significant ways as my own personal growth has led to a greater understanding. But in the same way, parts of the Bible that seemed pretty easy to grasp at a young age strike me now as challenging in new ways as experience raises more questions. II Samuel is a book like that. I was attracted to it as a young age because of its interesting narrative. But now I am struck with its deep message of victory and profound loss when godly people are drawn away from obedience from God. HISTO RIC AL BIO GRA PHIES I think Winston Churchill was a great man in a very complicated way. He had a marvelous analytical mind, and a great command of the English language. He was very politically interesting, too. Thomas Cranmer is one of my favorite Reformation era writers because of his great eloquence. His writings are equal to Shakespeare in their eloquence, and he had a profound influence on the language of worship in the English-speaking world. I don’t think I ever had a deep understanding of the word worship until reading what Thomas Cranmer wrote. ABRAHAM LINC O LN I think the intellectual development of Abraham Lincoln is interesting because we can see it grow in the materials we have from his presidency. He had a great understanding of human nature, and a remarkable sense of the need to be respectful of enemies. The South had caused a lot of needless bloodshed in the North. Yet Lincoln still had his mind set on ultimate reconciliation. Lincoln was extraordinarily compassionate, and I think he characterizes wisdom in a way we rarely see in modern life. THE STATUE O F THEMIS A ND S CA L ES OF JU S T ICE The Themis statue is representative of my being an attorney, I have been an attorney for half of my life. It is very much a part of my identity. Being an attorney is not just something you do, it is something you are. It involves a perspective on how the world is ordered that I definitely embrace. I think like a lawyer. For all of the criticism lawyers get, I actually admire lawyers very much. I think as a class lawyers tend to be highly sensitive to fairness and justice in a way they understand more than a lot of non-lawyers realize it is. FAVO R ITE FILMS I really enjoy movies that show people of great virtue, even when they’re flawed. Chinatown is a great film because it covers L.A. history, which fascinates me. I think it’s the ultimate film noir. I like to see great virtues in action, and this is why Lawrence of Arabia appeals to me so much. The story presents a model of a man who had a nearly impossible vision. Through sheer force of will he accomplished his goal, in spite of consequences he had to face in the end. The film shows what absolute tenacity can do. Cinema Paradiso is one of the few sentimental movies that I like. I find the story to be incredibly moving in its portrayal of the loss of innocence and how much change can happen over the course of a lifetime in a culture and in its depiction of a great love of movies. And it shows a great love of movies. A Man For All Seasons captures a really wonderfully wise character in St. Thomas More. He literally gave his life for his convictions about morality and his Christian faith. Yet he was very humble. I heard recently that he was proudest of his sense of humor. I really enjoyed 42 about Jackie Robinson. That film shows an interesting thing about courage. Robinson had courage to be the first black major league baseball player. But what the movie drives home is he could have stopped at any moment and had a comfortable life. But he was committed enough to principle to keep going. Robinson’s faith in God made him endure terrible things to achieve justice for others. Moneyball is one of my favorite more recent films. I think it is one of the best movies ever made on managing a business enterprise. It involves a guy showing amazing tenacity for a project even though he does not get much encouragement. He finally prevails and is pretty modest about his accomplishments. I have watched the film on several occasions, and I get different things out of it every time. MUSIC THAT MATT ERS I have been listening to The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, and Bob Dylan over and over again for years, and never get tired of them. Bob Dylan is the most skillful songwriter in my lifetime. Van Morrison's musical variety is really appealing. I think I got introduced to more old blues and jazz singers through his music than any other singer. And to me The Rolling Stones are just the greatest rock and roll band ever.

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S POTL I G H T

A LUMN U S SPOTL I G HT N O RM KAT N IK truly academically challenged until he went to law school. Trinity Law School alumnus Katnik grew up four miles from the Santa Ana campus. He was raised by a lawyer and a math teacher. And, he married his high school sweetheart. His father, the lawyer, briefly played pro football with the Detroit Lions. And it was the sports hero persona, not the attorney figure that initially made a big impression on Katnik as a boy.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what people think you are.” – John Wooden, famed UCLA basketball coach

Attorney Norm Katnik always thought of himself as an athlete. “Football is what shaped me.” In fact, Katnik never felt he was

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“When I looked at my father I saw a football player,” recalls Katnik. “Because of that, I never wanted to do anything other than play football. That was my number one focus and my dream. School was always on the back burner.” Katnik attended USC on a football scholarship. There he earned an economics degree. However, not surprisingly, football was his passion. He poured his attention, energy and efforts into excelling at the sport. And, the intensity of the schedule, especially in season, left little time for anything else. After graduating from college, Katnik was drafted by the NFL. He spent time on the rosters of the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Denver Broncos. After leaving left pro football behind for good, he dabbled in sales before finally deciding to join the family business. But the prospect of becoming a

lawyer was daunting for Katnik –after all he thought of himself only as an athlete. “The decision to go to law school was made with a lot of blind faith,” he admits. But he scored well on the LSAT and Trinity awarded him a generous scholarship. So to law school Katnik went. “When I got here I listened to all of my classmates introducing themselves. I heard what they had accomplished academically and what they planned to do with their law degree. I was terrified. I felt my academic past was inferior to each and every student.” Katnik says he quickly realized that what he needed to do was figure out how and why he had been so successful at football, and translate those skills into earning top grades in law school. He soon discovered the key was investing in his studies more than anyone else. And, this simply required discipline and dedication. “I was a very intelligent football player,” shares Katnik. “I was strategic and I worked harder than everybody. I knew if I came to law school and did the same thing, I was going to be successful.” From the beginning Katnik told himself he had a 100% chance of passing the bar the first time if he stuck to his game plan. “Each time I took a shortcut or skipped class, or borrowed someone’s outline, case brief, or notes, I knew I was cheating myself.”

FAV O R I TE TH I N G S C HA MPION SH IP FOOTB A L L RIN G When Katnik was a senior at the University of Southern California (USC), the Trojans won the coveted NCAA title for Division One college football. The victory at the Rose Bowl over Michigan in January 2004 made USC the number one team in the nation in all of college football. His championship ring is a treasured keepsake for Katnik. N F L FOOTB A L L JERSEYS After a successful high school football career, Katnik was awarded a full scholarship to play football at USC. He finished as a “first team” All Pac-10 offensive lineman and went on to play in the NFL, just like his father. Katnik played in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings and the Denver Broncos. Katnik has an impressive number of NFL football jerseys in his closet.

L AW PRA CTICE For Katnik, law is a family affair. His grandfather started the Santa Ana workers’ compensation and civil litigation law firm where he, his father, and his younger brother now work. Katnik didn’t know anything about the practice of law before earning his law degree. He had never worked for his father at the firm, even in the summer.

M A R RIA GE & FA MILY

Being a good husband and father now tops the priority list for Norm. He says his wife works hard during the day raising three young children, so it is his job to take care of the kids and give her a break when he gets home from work. He also credits her for handling the bulk of the parenting when he was in law school, allowing him to focus on his studies. Weekends are family time for the Katniks these days. And that means doing whatever the kids want to do on Saturday and Sunday. His favorite television show is “Parenthood.”

T HE BEA CH

He and his family go to the beach every weekend during the summer, usually Newport Beach. His perfect vacation is anywhere with a beach and a pool so he could spend half the day on the beach and half the day at the pool. He and his wife especially love to vacation in Cabo San Lucas and Maui any time they can.

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SPOT L I G H T

A LUMNA SPOTL I G HT S ADA RA M AYHA N

“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” – Proverbs 15:33 (ESV)

Becoming an attorney is a dream come true for Trinity Law School alumna, Sadara Mayhan. “I have wanted to be a lawyer since I was nine years old,” Mayhan says. “I had a dream of myself standing in the courtroom wearing a red suit talking to a judge.” She has felt a burning desire to 12

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fight injustice since she was a child. Mayhan recalls that she “would feel a passion rise up,” whenever she observed people being treated unfairly.

When Mayhan received an offer of admission she accepted immediately -- even though this meant she had to start classes the third week into her first semester. “Before I knew it, I was sitting in Torts I with Professor Dana Clark, terrified,” recalls Mayhan, laughing. His voice is so booming. Then, he started the class with a prayer. I was fighting tears. I was like, “I am in law school, and we are praying?!’”

After graduating from UCLA, Mayhan planned to go straight to law school. But when her son was born, Mayhan decided to forego her academic dreams by putting law school on hold so that she could invest in his early years However, when her son entered first grade, she began to again focus on making her lifelong dream a reality.

For Mayhan, Trinity Law School was even more fulfilling than college. “UCLA was fun and exciting. But with 33,000 students, I was truly just a number. By comparison, Trinity felt like a womb. Plus, I felt like I was being birthed into this next phase of life. I would finish class every night dog tired. But I would be inspired. My spirit was always leaping.”

“My aunt first told me about Trinity, and then later I saw it listed on the California Bar website,” says Mayhan. “I thought, ‘A Christian law school? I couldn’t believe it.’” Looking back, Mayhan knows her “discovery” of Trinity Law School was a divine appointment. “For me it has always been a matter of where the Lord places me. So wherever He wants me to be, that is where I want to be. I want to be in sync with my Savior.”

Law school is difficult. It requires discipline and hard work. But being busy does not mean you should let yourself drift away from the Lord, says Mayhan. “God comes first. He is the source of our intellect, our ability and our strength. We cannot neglect that relationship.” Meanwhile, you have to be teachable. “Law school took my excuses away. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is: Are you going to perform to the best of your ability or not?”

Excited and curious, Mayhan called Trinity and spoke to an admissions counselor, who invited her to come to campus for a visit the same evening. She lives in Fontana and had never even been to Santa Ana. But she jotted down the directions, got on the freeway, and began driving towards what would soon become the vehicle for achieving her big dream. The first thing Mayhan noticed was the olive trees. “It’s my favorite tree. I love what they represent. I said, ‘Lord, you know how I feel about olive trees.’” After her tour of the law school, Mayhan took an application and headed home. She was flooded with emotion. “I could not stop crying,” she remembers. “Because I knew God was transitioning me into something that I had been dreaming about since I was nine.”

The same goes for the California Bar, she advises. “Preparing for the bar requires 100% focus. Whatever bar prep program you use, follow their instructions. Do not fly by the seat of your pants. So do everything they tell you to do. I do not care how intelligent or gifted you may be. You have never been under that type of pressure.” Mayhan is taking her time in deciding what type of law to practice. But wherever she lands, she wants to have an impact on the world for God. “I want someone to sleep better at night, because of something that I accomplished. I want someone to be attracted to the Lord, because of the way I allowed Him to use me. In the end, my law degree is a tool to reach people for Jesus Christ.”

FAV O R I TE TH I N G S

P E A R LS OF WISDOM

For Mayhan, pearls represent worth, beauty and wisdom. God places these priceless attributes within each of us. He admonishes us to be good stewards over them when he says not to cast them before swine, like in Matthew 7:6.

T HE HOU RGL A SS

The hourglass intrigues Mayhan. Somehow, an hourglass commands that we respect time and its passage. Time is a vehicle for change. We are gifted with and responsible for how we spend the time God gave us.

N AT U R E A N D TH E OU TDOORS

Mayhan loves being in nature and the outdoors so she can appreciate things that are not man-made. This particular photo is of Etiwanda Falls in Rancho Cucamonga. She received the framed image as a gift. Months later, Mayhan found herself hiking the trail that leads to waterfall. “On the way, I found more of myself,” says Mayhan.

A B O O KWORM

“Simply stated, I am a staunch bookworm,” acknowledges Mayhan with a smile. She credits her mother for launching her love of knowledge by bookmarking words in the dictionary with maple leaves when she was about 7 years old. Mayhan confesses she read the dictionary for fun as a child. At UCLA, she developed a great appreciation for stories articulately and masterfully told. She double-majored in African American Studies with an English concentration because reading books for these classes taught her to distinguish her experience and her voice as a black woman.

S E A S HEL L S

Mayhan says she loves the beach, and she loves the mystery of the seashell. She notes that we gather, polish and display seashells like art. But we should not forget the nowempty vessels once housed and protected something living. “I'd like to execute my purpose on the earth as beautifully as seashells do,” says Mayhan.

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MISSIO N

DAVID S. DOCKERY

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION OF TRINITY LAW SCHOOL by Dr. David S. Dockery

President of Trinity International University

rinity Law School offers a distinctive way to prepare future attorneys as well as provide resources to those interested in issues pertaining to the intersection of the Christian faith with law, public service and policy, as well as society and culture. We believe that this approach to education is consistent with the best aspects of the Christian intellectual tradition, which is not merely about an inward, subjective, personal, and pious faith.

To say that Trinity Law School functions in a way that is consistent with the mission of Trinity International University is to recognize that the Christian faith is more than a moral code or a warm-hearted devotional practice. The truth claims of the Christian faith not only impact how we act, but also what we believe, how we think, how we write, how we teach, how we lead, how we govern, and how we relate one to another. We believe the work of Trinity Law School to be

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Graduate Prayer Breakfast

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MISSIO N // T H E CHR IS T IA N M IS S ION OF T HE TRIN ITY L AW SCH OOL

Tim Almond

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important because the Christian faith rightly understood and applied will help us in our desire to renew culture and to prepare a generation of leaders who can effectively serve not only the church, but society as well.

The Christian faith then provides the lens to see the world, recognizing that faith seeks to understand every dimension of life under the lordship of Jesus Christ. We recognize this to be the case because the Christian tradition has acknowledged that men and women, created in the image of God, desire to discover truth and that the exploration of truth is possible because the universe as created by God is intelligible. These beliefs are held together by our understanding that the unity of knowledge is grounded in our understanding that Jesus Christ holds all things together (Col. 1:17). We must not fail to recognize the challenges that will be faced in this journey, both from the academy and the culture, as well as from the church. There are those in the churches who would be quite satisfied if church-related institutions only provided a place for warm-hearted piety that would encourage campus ministry, community service, and perhaps even a global mission trip. But the attempt to carry out the work of Trinity Law School, under the capable leadership and guidance of Dean Myron Steeves and the Trinity faculty is different from such a minimalist model. The mission of Trinity Law School calls for more than the promotion of piety and activism, as important as these two things are. Trinity Law School has been designed to help prepare students vocationally for a calling in the practice of the law, but it also exists to help students give priority to Christian thinking, learning how to think Christianly, creatively, carefully, and critically, engaging both the church and society, the academy and the culture. T. S. Eliot, the

brilliant literary scholar, described this practice as learning “to think in Christian categories.” Thus we must seek to build Christian universities, including Christian law schools, that are faithful to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that provide a context for helping students, staff, and faculty seek justice, mercy, and love, while demonstrating responsible freedom. In all of these things, we want to see Trinity Law School community prioritize worship and service as central to all aspects of life and work. We want to invite the students and faculty at Trinity Law School to pursue academic excellence, which is best demonstrated in teaching, research, and scholarship. In doing so, those in this community will explore how the Christian faith informs and influences the teaching and learning process. Such a commitment helps to shape a shared community where we learn from one another and seek to engage all peoples, cultures, and traditions in genuine conversation. Like all institutions of higher learning, the Trinity Law School community will subordinate all other endeavors to the improvement of the mind in pursuit of truth. As an aspect of a fully orbed education, attention will also be placed on faith formation, personal development, and professional competencies. All of these things are best pursued within a community of learning that includes colleagues of the present as well as key voices of the past, who can prepare us for the challenges of the future. Trinity Law School offers a distinctive and holistic approach to an education that attends to the intellectual, moral, spiritual, social, and professional development of its students. In doing so, Trinity Law School graduates will be people who make a difference in communities, in society, and in the legal profession by promoting and exemplifying integrity, justice, and generosity. We invite you to join us in this effort. It will be a privilege to join hands together with you as you participate with us on this exciting journey through your prayers, support, and encouragement.

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DISCIPL E S H I P

ENCOURAGING AT- R I S K L AT I N O YO UT H T O TH I NK AN D D R E AM B I G G E R by Marcia Lee Kelly MARCIA LEE KELLY Chief Advancement Officer for Trinity Law School

rowing up in Santa Ana local college student Antonio Rodriguez was plagued by feelings of hatred and anger. His home life was filled with hardship and abuse and he blamed God for letting him experience heartbreak and pain. When he was young, Antonio ended up in Juvenile Hall. He has since gotten his life back on track. Unfortunately, the story of young men and women grappling with drug use, gangs, and poverty is all too familiar. For us at Trinity Law School, these are more than just stories. These young people are our neighbors, many of whom have long believed they do not have the luxury of dreaming of a better life or aspiring to higher educational opportunities for themselves or family members.

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

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DISCIPL E S H I P // E N C OU R A GIN G AT- R IS K L ATIN O YOU TH TO TH IN K A N D DREA M B IGGER

Enter Encuentros Leadership. The popular non-profit was organized in 2003 to address the alarming high school drop-out rates for Latino males and to present tangible solutions. According to one well-known board member, Pastor Ariel Meza, the vision of Encuentros Leadership is for every Latino male in Orange County to be given an opportunity to pursue higher education, which statistics show would lead to positive change in their challenged environments. Pastor Meza says:

“Latino males have the lowest high school graduation rates and the lowest college enrollment and completion rates of any ethnic group. This has to stop.”

As part of its curriculum, the Encuentros Leadership Academy holds an annual weeklong program to introduce 10th-grade male Latino students to the means, methods, and strategies to better their lives. To this end, Trinity Law School was invited to develop a unique partnership with Encuentros Leadership and Word-Up Ministries/The Advocate Radio Program to help educate this at-risk demographic and help them beat the odds. Together, the three collaborated on a mock trial program entitled “Just One Bad Decision.” Fifty students from schools in Anaheim and Santa Ana were selected to participate by playing “jurors” during a presentation made at the Old Orange County Courthouse. The experience taught them about the American judicial system in general, and demonstrated, specifically, how

one bad decision can profoundly alter the course of their lives. The legal drama taught the Encuentros Leadership Academy students how to analyze facts, assess evidence, and apply law to the realistic scenario being acted out by the volunteer cast. They were then asked to draw their own conclusions regarding the guilt or innocence of the two defendants standing trial. Almost every student got the right answer, showing they were paying close attention to the play. The event closed with a real-life testimony from Rodriguez, who highlighted his regrets over not being taught this type of lesson before he got in trouble with the law as a minor.

“I never realized that one bad decision could affect my future. If only I would have surrendered my all to God I wouldn’t have gone through everything that came after I rebelled. Instead, God would have healed me then, and I would have become a new person sooner.” Rodriguez credits Pastor Meza for helping him accept Christ and for encouraging him to attend law school so that he can acquire the education, skills and training to make a difference in his community. The mock trial script was written by attorney Janet Carter, host of “The Advocate” radio program. It was intended to teach the students about the elements of the crime of conspiracy in an edgy and realistic manner. This exposure to an authentic court drama was intended to help students understand the importance of making wise decisions when confronted with emotional turmoil and to

Antonio Rodriguez

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Mock Trial Cast Members

embolden them to pursue their dreams – including obtaining a highter education, such as a law degree. The goal of the program was also to deter gang affiliation and violence and discourage participation in all crime-related conversations.

“I thought it would be a great way to engage the students and let them learn that they have the ability to decide, to hope, to plan and to press towards creating a remarkable future – including dreams as big as becoming an attorney,”

shared Carter. “This, rather than to settle for falling into the unending trap of trouble that comes from associating with gangs in any way. Helping prevent these kids from being marked by a criminal record for life is something I hope can be made possible through the program.” A combination of Trinity Law School Missions and Service Club members and local volunteers participated in the mock trial event. Trinity Law School Missions and Service Club President Juan Salas helped write the script and recruit his fellow club members and classmates to participate in the mock trial. He also played a defense attorney in the drama. “As a Latino, I was honored to be asked to help be a part of a project to encourage at-risk youth

to think big, dream big, make wise decisions, and to believe that success through education is possible,” said Salas. “My hope is that this program may be a catalyst for positive change for many future Latino leaders in Southern California.” George Baselous, Tim Almond, Jamie Riggins, Caitlin Scott, Sandra Rodriguez, Melanie Ahumada, Narcis Brasov, and Bo Sandulescu comprised the rest of the Trinity ensemble, and Antonio Rodriguez, Alex Mandujano and Cinthia Torres were the community members who helped. Trinity’s Office of Advancement hopes that future funding will come from donors and foundations who will underwrite these types of service projects, scholarships, mission trips and legal clinics that honor the glory of God.

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ALUMN I

TLS ALU M N I SPOT L I G HT STEVE MELINE: A FIRST CLASS ALUMNUS Interview by Michelle Eaton

ST E V E MELIN E

Santa Ana-based workers’ compensation attorney Steve Meline holds a special place in the history of Trinity Law School: He is a member of the inaugural class of four students who began their Christian legal education when the former Simon Greenleaf School of Law opened for business in 1980. Meline credits God for his blessed life in the law.

How did you become part of the Trinity Law School community? In my first career I was a federal probation and parole officer. I worked in courts a lot, and I was encouraged by other practitioners to consider pursuing a law degree. When I came to Christ and married my wife, Mary, she also supported the idea. So when I heard there was a law school starting on the grounds of my church, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, it was clear to me that I belonged there. I applied and was accepted, and became 25% of the entering class. Describe the early days of Trinity Law School. The law school courses were initially taught in elementary school classrooms at the church. Students sat at child-sized desks. A benefactor later leased us a beautiful building on La Palma Avenue in Anaheim for $1 a year. It felt like a mansion compared to where we started. The “law library” was quite small and consisted mostly of antiquities owned by law school founder, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. He was an avid collector of rare books. Some were centuries old. Most were not useful to us at all. Our professors were local attorneys and DAs and Dr. Montgomery, who was long on energy and commitment. What was law school like with only four students? You could not hide behind anyone. You knew you were going to be called upon in every class to explain and defend positions, and to discuss legal theories. It was inescapable.

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So we always had to be prepared. But there was a closeness I cannot imagine in another setting. We went through law school as a unified body. In spite of the challenges we shared a great spirit of camaraderie, because we knew we were at the beginning of something God had put together. It was truly a community without the typical, cutthroat trappings found at most law schools. How did attending law school impact family life? I worked full-time in Los Angeles during law school. I took the bus to and from my office each day. My wife would meet me at the bus depot in the evenings with our two small children and a hot meal. After a quick visit, I would drive my VW bug to class. It was a period of a lot of stress, but also a very special time in my marriage and family because we were devoted to identifiable goals. We all made sacrifices together. I once offered a 1957 MG coupe I had restored to Dr. Montgomery in exchange for a semester of tuition. He turned me down. But I am glad because I still have the car. It is just one example of how we did everything we could to stay on track and allow me to complete my law school education. Why was a Christian law school a good fit for you? I was a fairly new Christian when I started law school. While I had an early Catholic education, I never had the opportunity to get an Evangelical Christian education. And if I was going to go into law, I wanted a foundation that stood on the Word of God. I was anxious to become God’s man as an

“When I see Trinity thriving, my personal celebration is very deep, both in terms of my heart and in terms of my history. I have been here since the beginning. I have watched what God has done to keep the law school going.”

attorney and do His work whatever that was. It was vital to me to have an integration of law and the Gospel, to bring together my profession and my faith. How did you choose your area of law practice? One of the costs of graduating from a start-up law school was nobody had ever heard of it. As a result, doors weren’t exactly flying open after I became a licensed attorney. I also didn’t have the opportunity to do any interning while in law school or clerking due to my busy schedule. So I came into the law without that ancillary experience. But an opportunity arose through a friend in the area of workers’ compensation, and that is where I have been ever since. It was not something that I had planned. In fact, I always say that workers’ compensation is what happens to lawyers. Very few attorneys intend upon landing in this area. But it’s a privilege and a treat to know that you are where God puts you. The first half of my career I spent working for insurance companies and employers on the defense side of workers’ compensation. The kids would ask, “What did you do today, dad?” And, I would tell them, “Well, I saved an insurance company a thousand dollars, and I cost them a thousand dollars.” But it was also a training period for me for the second half of my career, when I began representing injured workers. How has your Christian faith shaped your practice of law? I frequently bring my Christian faith into my practice. I can minister to my clients through sharing the Word of God and praying with

them. I help them as they are going through crises brought on by industrial accidents that often lead to the loss of their profession and way of life. They experience so many critical changes as they watch their worldly life unravel as a result of debilitating injuries. God gives me the wisdom and the ability to seek justice for my clients by bringing the law to bear to get the best possible results for them. I also try to help them put their new challenges into perspective to make it easier for them to shoulder the losses and move forward. That is a dimension I could not have brought to the setting without my spiritual foundation. Why are Christian law schools so important? Our country is shaped and defined by the legal technicalities and precedent established by the practice of law. And the enemy never rests. The ways that liberalism and secularism and humanism have impacted the education and the laws in our country demonstrate how the enemy has established himself. As a result, we have individuals who are highly educated but who still do not understand the truth. If the Christians continue to stand back and do not bring their faith out from under the church steeples, then they leave every arena and every force that will shape our society to the misguided efforts of the unbelievers. If the Christians are not engaged in education, politics, and the law, then we have nobody to blame but ourselves when we see our country circling the drain. God’s people have been chosen to bring His will into effect. If we do not do this, we are not pursuing the Great Commission.

Why is supporting Trinity Law School a priority for you? I want God’s presence in the courtroom, in the legislature, and in the culture. I believe Trinity is a work of God and is being used by Him to establish Christian attorneys who will be leaders. The law school has contributed so much in terms of training and equipping law students to serve God and their clients with intelligence and integrity, and is providing opportunities for the greater Christian legal community to flourish. The Christian Legal Aid Office (CLAO) and the local branch of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) are located on campus. And Trinity Law School graciously hosts the monthly luncheon meeting for the Orange County attorney chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS), over which I preside. Any final thoughts? When I see Trinity thriving, my personal celebration is very deep, both in terms of my heart and in terms of my history. I have been here since the beginning. I have watched what God has done to keep the law school going. I endeavor to support Trinity financially and in a number of other ways. I am keen for this school to maintain its orthodoxy and its commitment to Christ and to survive not only as a Christian institution in name, but as a Christian institution in fact. The answer to the world’s problems is not merely more lawyers. Without our faith, we can be as much of a problem as a solution. But as Christian attorneys we can do God’s work, and this gives eternal purpose and meaning to our profession.

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EXCEL L E NCE

TRINIT Y L AW SC HO O L N ATIONA L MO O T C OURT C HA MP ION S PLA CE S #1 IN T H E N AT I O N AF T E R D E F E ATI N G S CHO O L S L IKE GE O R GE T O W N AN D C O L U M B I A

by Jessica Frieberg

During the 2013-2014 academic year, Trinity sent teams to four major Moot Court competitions. Perhaps the most widely recognized of these was the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition. This prestigious competition is held annually, and extends invitations to as many as 120 teams of law students to compete in brief writing and oral arguments in six regions across the United States. Each team must submit a 30-page brief to enter. The winners of these divisions then progress to the national level. Second-year students George Baseluos and Juan Salas comprised the Trinity Law School team. The accomplished duo made their first big splash at the Western Regional BLSA (WRBLSA) Convention in Sacramento. Trinity placed second overall of the ten teams competing in this region, beating the University of San Diego School of Law and the USC Gould School of Law, among others.

Juan Salas and George Baseluos

here are national Moot Court champions proud to call Trinity Law School home. Their names? George Baseluos, Viviana Escobar, Sadara Mayhan and Juan Salas. How does a small Christian law school prevail over the legal giants of the Ivy League? With good training, faith, hard work and determination. But first a little background.

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At Trinity Law School, the selection for participation on various Moot Court teams is based primarily on success achieved in the Legal Research and Writing II oral arguments competition held at the end of every semester. Every Trinity student must participate as a requirement of the class. Those students who are not eliminated and make it to the final round of the competition are considered for inclusion on various Trinity Moot Court teams.

Each year, students at law schools across the nation compete in prestigious Moot Court competitions to hone their skills in critical thinking, legal writing, and oral advocacy. Students selected to participate on Moot Court teams are generally those who have distinguished themselves to be academically superior and who have also proven they have the skills required to compete with the nation’s brightest law students.

In addition to the pair earning a place in the national competition, Salas was honored with the Best Oralist Award at the WRBLSA Convention. He credits their success to the demanding legal research and writing program at Trinity, which he says provides students with a thorough preparation and training for doing the actual work of an attorney.

The achievements at the regional contest earned Baseluos and Salas a spot in the national competition held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin two months later. There they competed with some of the best law schools in the country, including Columbia Law School, CUNY School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Texas School of Law and several others. During the intense five-day competition, the top three teams from each region competed in tough “knock-out” rounds. Only the top 2 teams were left standing of the 17 law schools originally represented – Trinity Law School and Columbia Law School. When the final round was finished and scores were tallied, the esteemed judges declared Trinity Law School the winner of the 2013-2014 NBLSA Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition. Baseluos and Salas were the second team from Trinity Law School to claim victories in this well-known Moot Court competition: two years ago TLS law students (now graduates) Viviana Escobar and Sadara Mayhan together won Best Petitioner’s Brief, and Escobar was named Best Oralist at the 2011-2012 WRBLSA Convention. Team Escobar/Mayhan placed second to UCLA School of Law for the top overall score. Along the way they beat 18 other teams. The wins sent the pair to the Washington, D.C. for the 2011-2012 NBLSA Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition, where they earned Best Petitioner’s Brief. The Trinity team beat 19 other law schools for the award, including Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and UCLA. Trinity’s successes at the NBLSA Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition reflects the law school's commitment to provide students with the practical skills they need to be successful attorneys.

Viviana Escobar and Sadara Mayhan

Baseluos puts it best:

“Being able to compete at a national competition against some of the biggest and most prestigious law schools in the country – and beat them all – must mean Trinity is doing something right. I didn’t come into law school with the skills we used to beat the competition. It was all learned, and for that I am thankful.”

write well, and speak with knowledge and authority. In short: good training. These skills afforded Team Baseluos/Salas and Team Escobar/Mayhan the opportunities to achieve national success in the Moot Court arena, and ultimately can help all Trinity Law School students make a name for themselves as students, as attorneys, as judges, and more. J E S S I C A F R I E BE R G Associate Director of Academic Services for Trinity Law School

Theory alone does not prepare students for the practice of law. Law students need to be given the tools to think critically,

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MAG A ZIN E

ORA NG E COU N TY C HR IST I A N L E G AL SO C I E T Y ( C L S) S PEA K E R S E RIE S 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5 Attorneys, law professors, law students and those interested in learning more about a range of issues related to Christian life and the practice of law are invited to attend the Orange County CLS chapter monthly lunch meetings sponsored by Trinity Law School. For more information, visit www.clsoc.org T IM O THY BUSCH - 08 . 1 4 . 2 0 1 4 “Bringing Faith Back Into The Marketplace”

C L AY J ON ES - 0 1 . 0 8 . 2 0 1 5 “Were We All Born Auschwitz Enabled?”

RI CH A RD S A LYER - 0 5 . 1 4 .2015 “Living Out Your Faith”

Timothy Busch practiced real estate and tax law in Orange County for 35 years and he helped create the Magis Institute to provide ethics training. He owns the Trinitas Cellars vineyard.

Clay Jones is an associate professor for the M.A. program in Christian Apologetics at Biola University. He formerly hosted “Contend for Truth” a syndicated radio call-in debate program.

Rick Salyer is the CEO of the James L. Stamps Foundation. The foundation awards grants to evangelical Christian organizations, churches, seminaries, schools, and service groups.

K EV IN HOLSCLAW - 0 9 . 1 1 . 2 0 1 4 “Not A City On A Hill: Reflections of A Capitol Hill Lawyer”

J E SSI E FAH Y - 0 2 . 1 2 . 2 0 1 5 “Limiting God’s Great Plan For Our Lives”

A D EL I N E A L L EN - 0 6 . 1 1 . 2015 “Persecuted For Christ”

Jessie Fahy is Alumni Relations Director for Pepperdine University School of Law. She has previously served as the Executive Director of Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles (CLA-LA).

Adeline Allen is a contracts and torts professor at Trinity Law School. She also serves as faculty advisor to the Trinity Law Review and Christian Legal Society student chapter.

FATHER ROBERT SPITZER - 03.12.2015 “Ten Universal Principles: The Foundation of Civilization”

MA RC A L L MERO T H - 0 7 . 0 9.2015 “Peace, Love and Litigation”

Kevin Holsclaw is a former dean of Trinity Law School. He served as Special Assistant Attorney General in the California Department of Justice and worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington D.C. M A R K R. SCHN EI DER - 1 0 . 0 9 . 2 0 1 4 “The Christian’s Imperative To Be Salt and Light” Mark R. Schneider is the Senior V.P. and Legal Counsel for Wi-Lan Technologies, an intellectual property law firm. He currently serves on the Trinity Law School Advisory Board.

Father Spitzer is President of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith. The non-profit group produces documentaries, books, and school curricula on faith and reason in the sciences.

J ERRY MA CK EY - 0 8 . 1 3 . 2 015 “Challenges to Religious Freedom in Faith-Based Higher Education”

A LE X AN DRA SN YDER - 1 1 . 1 3 . 2 0 1 4 “Sex Trafficking: Law and Policy”

RY U L KI M - 0 4 . 0 9 . 2 0 1 5 “Confucianism and Christianity: St. Thomas More”

Alexandra Snyder is the new Director of Academic Support at Trinity Law School. She previously served at Courage Worldwide, a non-profit to help victims of human sex trafficking.

Ryul Kim is an attorney and specialist in U.S.-Korea legal matters. He teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and runs the Mediation Clinic at Trinity Law School.

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Marc Allmeroth is a partner at the Long Beach civil litigation law firm of Allmeroth and Garner. He formerly served as the Assistant Dean and torts professor at Trinity Law School.

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Jerry Mackey is an attorney who specializes on estate planning, tax planning, charitable and deferred giving. He has practiced law for 35 years and works currently at Biola.

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TIM BUSCH : FAITH + T HE M A R K E T P L A C E Hotel in Orange, the Crowne Plaza Resort near Disneyland, and the Meritage Collection, which includes the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, the Balboa Bay Club and Resort in Newport Beach, and the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara. He and his wife Stephanie also run a vineyard in Napa Valley called Trinitas Cellars with the help of their two adult children, Garrett and Mackenzie. Together they founded JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano and St. Anne School in Laguna Niguel.

The Orange County Christian Legal Society (CLS) 2014-2015 speaker series is underway at Trinity Law School. The monthly attorney/ student luncheons were launched in August with a lively presentation about bringing faith back into the marketplace by attorney and entrepreneur Tim Busch. Busch is the founder of Busch & Caspino, P.C. and has practiced tax, business, and real estate law locally in Orange County for 35 years. He also owns Pacific Hospitality Group, LLC, a hotel development and management company with upscale properties across California. The company roster includes the Doubletree Hotel at the Irvine Spectrum, the Doubletree

Busch is keenly interested in matters of faith and public life, and believes strongly in the importance of philanthropy. During his talk, he shared his thoughts about living boldly for God to more than 50 lawyers, law professors, and law students in attendance.

In addition to his law practice and business and charitable endeavors, Busch is a co-founder of the Magis Institute, a non-profit that sponsors prayer retreats, ethics training, and wealth stewardship forums. Busch notes his personal goal is to honor God in everything he does. He also shared another important reason for Christians to set an example with their faith: In the U.S. 25% of those under the age of 18 claim to be agnostic or atheist. “We are the greatest country in the world,” observed Busch. “Yet we are only one generation away from being a nation absent faith in God.” Christians should not hesitate in any way to proclaim their faith, he said.

“Each and every day we are called to be missionaries,” explained Busch. “We are all Biblically mandated to evangelize.” He emphasized the importance of not only living in accordance with the will of God, but doing so in a public way. “We should live as Christians both at home and at work. And this means we should bring faith into the marketplace without fear.” Busch shared how he leads prayer at every business meal regardless of whether anyone else at the table or in the room is a believer.

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PH ILANT H R O P Y

A DV O C AT E S P O T L I G H T M ARGA R E T H O LT RU ST: THE H E A RT & H A N D S O F A SE RVAN T by Michelle Eaton

nd he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” LUK E 1 0 : 2 7 ( E SV )

Wife, mother, educator, missionary and philanthropist. The late Margaret Holtrust may not be a well-known name among the students

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who currently fill the classrooms, corridors and library carrels of Trinity Law School, but countless numbers of those on campus and beyond have benefitted from her life and legacy. Holtrust was born in Holland in 1925 and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was three. Her Dutch parents were farmers who settled in the state of Washington and ran a small dairy farm. She learned how to overcome difficult circumstances at a young age. Her father drowned when she was 12, leaving her to help raise her younger brother and sister while her mother went to work cleaning houses.

Wycliffe Bible Translators

After graduating from high school, Margaret attended college in San Francisco for a short time where she took nursing courses. World War II was underway, and she answered the call to join the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. During her time with the Nurse Corps, Margaret was introduced to a young sailor named John who shared her last name – Holtrust. It wasn’t long before Margaret and John were married. When the war was over, they moved to Los Angeles to start a family.

truth of Christianity. She pulled her car to the side of the road, placed her hand on the radio, and accepted Jesus Christ as her savior.

Margaret became a Christian in her early twenties. She was listening to a sermon by popular minister J. Vernon McGee one day while driving and became convicted of the

“My father was a milkman and my mother found part-time jobs, like packing dates when they were in season,” said daughter, MarJeanne Iorio. When she decided she needed to send her

God, family, Christian service and traditional values grounded her life. “My parents were part of the generation that lived through the Great Depression,” according to her son, John Holtrust. “They were just regular folks.”

children to private Christian schools, Margaret began working as a cook at a high school cafeteria to pay for the tuition. But in spite of the hard work, achieving the American dream remained elusive for the couple and their four children. So, in the mid-1960s, still pursuing their dreams, they decided to move to Sydney, Australia. The nation was beckoning immigrants with the promise of a sea passage. The open invitation was part of a national effort to entice people to move Down Under to help meet labor shortages and develop the country economically. According to MarJeanne, her mother and father wanted to

“break out of their rut and experience the world.” John’s recollection of the decision was similar:

“My parents went through a process where they made the decision that they really needed to change the trajectory of their lives – change the way things were headed for all of us.” To this end, the family sold everything, boarded a steamship, and embarked on what they hoped would be a great adventure. As

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PH ILANT H R O P Y // A D VOC AT E S P O T L IGHT MARGARET HOLTRUST: THE HEART & HANDS OF A SERVANT

John recalled, the 8,000-mile journey represented more than merely traveling between two points on a map. The trip helped illuminate for him the kind of people his parents were: ones who cared deeply about their neighbors near and far. “We went to Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines on our way to Australia. When we got to each port, missionaries my parents had been helping support met us at the ship. My parents were just working-class people. But everywhere we stopped people took us under their wings and invited us into their homes. My parents had relationships in each of these places. It was surreal for me as a 12-year-old kid.”

“My parents had a heart for others, agreed MarJeanne. They wanted

everyone to know Christ, and also wanted to meet the day-to-day needs of people.” As for Australia? “It was a fantastic experience, but we could not stay,” explained MarJeanne. The Holtrust family returned to the U.S. a year later because they discovered getting ahead financially was no easier in Australia than in Southern California. In addition, the educational system was too different and family support was far away. But they were resolute in their commitment to acquire the tools needed for a better life. “My parents decided my mother should finish college” said John. “She ultimately earned

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a master’s degree in political science. And suddenly instead of a working-class perspective, my sisters and I realized the value of education and we went to school too.” Margaret began teaching at Golden West Community College. While there she invented ways to engage her students in the political process. She required them work together in groups to solve real-life issues. For some, this meant figuring out how to get a stop sign installed at a busy intersection. For others, it was discovering how to lobby for more community development funds. As a result, her students learned by doing.

“My mother really believed in the need to achieve tangible results, to get some work done,

for her, learning wasn’t just a mental exercise. You don’t just leave with the books read, the syllabus finished, and the tests taken. She was really seeking to inspire people to action. And that was her life too. The things that she felt strongly about, she got committed to and made happen, explained John.” When her husband died in the late 1980s, Margaret decided to stop teaching and start doing missionary work. She spent the next dozen years as a freelance writer for Wycliffe Bible Translators, and traveled to remote parts of the world to cover

stories. She traveled to places like Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “My mother had great compassion for Africa.” shared MarJeanne. During this time, Margaret continued her long-time involvement with the Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, which led to her being elected to the Board of Trustees for Trinity International University. It was not long before, Margaret became fond of the law school. She soon began focusing on ways to attend to the needs of the growing law school in California. “I noticed her interest shift.” recalled John. “She felt like she had made a contribution as a university trustee. But since most of her life was spent operating

much closer to the action, this was where her heart was. I think she saw a real opportunity to help the law school. So that is what she did.” Margaret became a familiar face on the California campus and a consistent donor. “She had great affection for the law school.” shared Trinity Law School dean Myron S. Steeves. “She would drop by and see us when she could. And she gave regularly.” Most of her gifts were unrestricted and could be used to meet any needs on campus. But some were intended strictly to upgrade the library. She was also a strong advocate of the human rights program at Trinity Law School.

“My mom really had a strong sense of justice and fairness.” said John. “She had traveled internationally. And if you have spent any time in the developing world, you know the problems have layers upon layers of complexity. She felt that it was important to do something tangible, particularly as Christians.” Margaret recognized the need for training future attorneys in the area of human rights law. She understood the importance of educating students about the exploitation and abuses of people around the world, and instructing them how to seek justice on behalf of these victims by engaging the legal process. “She knew there had to be processes, structures, and institutions established if you

wanted something to last beyond the instant,” shared John. And Margaret was a woman of action. “Where her heart was, not only was her purse, but also a high degree of personal involvement and personal caring.” said John. Her generosity had an important ripple effect. “Margaret really helped the law school by persuading others to support its mission financially,” said McConnell. For her son, this enthusiasm was contagious. “Talking with my mom helped me understand where Trinity was going, and the vision for the law school. Suddenly, I wanted to help, too.”

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PH ILANT H R O P Y // A D VOC AT E S P O T L IGHT MARGARET HOLTRUST: THE HEART & HANDS OF A SERVANT

(L to R) MarJeanne Iorio, Margaret Holtrust, John Michael Holtrust, Judi (Judith) Marie Tull, Janice Maureen Mann

John soon provided the funds to update the critical computer networking infrastructure at Trinity. A standing lunch date between John and his mother soon inspired a project of an even grander scale: an international gathering of Christian thinkers and educators who would be invited to discuss the intersection of faith and politics. “Together and with our Christian friends we were wrestling with questions like, ‘What is the place of God in the public square?’” recalled John. They decided there was room for some intellectual dialogue

and debate about this ancient and fundamental inquiry that seemed to be missing from the experience of many people. “So what came out of that was a real proposal on my part.” shared John. “I went to Trinity and said, ʽWhat would it take in terms of a donation to really do this?ʼ” A budget was assembled, John wrote a large check, and the “God & Governing” conference was born.

of booking high-caliber, widelyrecognized speakers.” said John. “There was interest from all over the world. We even had people come all the way from Indonesia to attend. It was fantastic.” Both mother and son are credited for its success. “John provided Trinity with a major grant for the conference, but Margaret pointed the way.” noted McConnell. The reason?

The two-day event unfolded in February 2008. “I was very impressed with the quality of what Trinity Law School was able to do in terms

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

“Again, my mother had a real heart for education, she believed in

it. With the life model that she had, she knew education could be transformative.” As McConnell related with fondness, Margaret also demonstrated her spirit of giving and innate kindness in other ways. “I will never forget how Margaret used to bring poinsettias to decorate the law school every Christmas season, and fruit from her own citrus trees to cheer the staff. I remember one of Margaret’s large fragrant navel oranges sitting on (former) Dean Kevin

“Together and with our Christian friends we were wrestling with questions like,‘What is the place of God in the public square?’” Holsclaw’s desk. He would palm the orange from hand to hand as we discussed the issues of law school administration.” Margaret fully embraced the Biblical commandment to “love thy neighbor,” and lived it every day. “She was warm and friendly to everyone,” recalled McConnell. “Despite the aches and pains of age, she had an adventurous spirit and would take every opportunity to come and visit us or call to see how things were going. She was a great prayer warrior as well, and upheld not only the law school, but her church and missionary work as well.”

When Margaret died, her family discovered she had willed ten percent of her estate to the determined Christian law school that had captured her heart.

“I wasn’t surprised. She made decisions that were in alignment with what her life values were. She had a lot of passion for the things that she was involved in, including Trinity Law School.” The generous financial support Margaret and her son have provided over the years earned them the

distinction of being the top donors in the history of the law school.

MICHELLE EATON

As MarJeanne shared, a treasured final moment in the life of their mother depicted her spirit of true humility and the selfless devotion she had for God and His people. My mother loved music. And even though she could not carry a tune, she did make a joyful noise. She would hear her favorite worship songs and lift her arms in praise. When I went to see her in the hospital after her stroke, she was still somewhat alert. And there she was, raising her right arm making a joyful noise. She was ready to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ and praise Him. She met Him on Mother’s Day in 2011.

3L law student at Trinity Law School

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T OP T E N L I S T

T OP TEN ST U D E NT G RO U PS ALTER NATI VE DI SP U TE R E SOL U TIO N ( A D R) S O CI ET Y / / President: Damoun Aliyazdi | Advisor: Professor Ryul Kim The goal of the new Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Society is to provide members with essential professional networking opportunities, and to promote awareness of ADR practices. We hope to accomplish this by presenting guest lectures, career panels, mock mediation sessions and interactive workshops. We also want to identify internship opportunities for students. Members can learn how to become state-certified court mediators and may be able to compete in tournaments where they can sharpen their skills. ADR Society faculty advisor Ryul Kim is an attorney and internationally recognized mediation expert. BLACK LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (BLSA) / / President: Tim Almond | Advisor: Marcia Lee Kelly The national mission of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) is to ‘balance the scales’ of justice and promote diversity in the legal profession. Here on campus our goal is to provide a supportive network and resources for all law students who share this passion. We plan to engage in community outreach, particularly by reaching out to at-risk youth of color. The club intends to create opportunities for members to volunteer for service projects to help develop themselves more than just academically by engaging with the community. CHRI STI A N L E G A L SOC I E TY ( C L S) // President: Melanie Ahumada | Advisor: Professor Adeline Allen The purpose of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) is to help develop and maintain a vibrant Christian law student presence on our campus, to provide opportunities for believers to meet and engage one another in fellowship, encouragement, and accountability and to inspire future attorneys to seek justice with the love of God. This year CLS intends to host interesting and impactful speaker events for all students, arrange a networking dinner with the Orange County CLS Attorney chapter and continue to support the Dean’s Bible study. CRI MINA L L AW A SSOC I ATI ON ( C L A ) / / President: Maryam Hemmati | Advisor: Professor Ken McDonald The Criminal Law Association (CLA) exists to provide a strong channel for member networking and to promote unity among students who have an interest in the field of criminal law. CLA is dedicated to promoting the in-depth study and practice of criminal law and aims to increase student awareness of the psychological, social and political issues related to the criminal justice system. CLA will host events to allow students to examine diverse issues from the perspective of the accused, the victim, the prosecution, the defense, the judge, and society at large. DELTA THETA PHI (DTP) INTERNATIONAL LAW FRATERNITY // Dean: Shelley Henderson | Advisor: Professor Andrew McCarron The mission of Delta Theta Phi (DTP) is to foster lifelong friendships and professional affiliations through legal education and international networking. To this end, we will host events to give law students access to judges and lawyers who are willing to mentor them through law school and the Bar, and into their legal careers. And DTP also provides students the opportunity to be a part of its law review, The Adelphia Law Journal. THE F E DE R A L I ST SOC I E TY / / President: Bo Sandelescu | Advisor: Professor Dana Clark The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians who advocate the concept of limited government. We believe the state exists to preserve individual rights, and we understand and promote the idea that the separation of governmental power is central to the U.S. Constitution. This year our chapter will seek to encourage the awareness of these fundamental principles with compelling speaker events. We want to inform and empower students by providing them with facts about key issues at the forefront of the battle to protect the liberties of a free society from government encroachment. INTERNATIONAL LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (ILSA) // President: Jonathan Yong | Advisor: Professor Andrew DeLoach The mission of the International Law Students Association (ILSA) is to educate law students about the principles and purposes of international law, global organizations and foreign legal systems. Our chapter plans to host speakers, plan mixer events and offer opportunities for students to attend relevant workshops and conferences. We believe networking is vitally important to future attorneys, and therefore strongly encourage communication between law students and attorneys on campus and around the world. By joining ILSA, members will feel they are part of the law school community, not simply attending law school.

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TRINI TY L AW SC H OOL M I SSI ON S A N D S ERV I CE CL U B // President: Juan Salas | Advisor: Marcia Lee Kelly The goal of the Trinity Law School Missions and Service Club is two-fold. First, we want to help support existing missions, the local and international organizations already serving the needy. Second, we want to expose law students to these charitable endeavors by providing opportunities for them to observe firsthand Christians who have radically given their lives to others. We know exposing law students to this powerful testimony of love and sacrifice will not only benefit them spiritually but will also benefit the community as a whole. We believe that these models will inspire students to give back by engaging with the community through service like pro bono work. WO M E N’ S L E G A L SOC I E TY ( W L S ) / / President: Michelle Wang | Advisor: Professor Alexandra Snyder The mission of the Women’s Legal Society (WLS) is to provide a forum to address the unique challenges women face as attorneys and to empower female law students to pursue their career goals regardless of any obstacles. Our goal is to cultivate informed, confident and successful female attorneys. To this end, we are partnering with like-minded groups at area law schools. During the year we will provide networking opportunities and promote philanthropy on campus and in the community. WLS hopes to grow to become one of the largest group of women’s law students in the nation. STU D E NT B A R A SSOC I ATI ON ( S BA ) / / President: Mike Athari | Advisor: Michael Peterson The Student Bar Association (SBA) helps to raise the importance of Trinity Law School’s mission. And the professors and staff genuinely care about students. This creates a trickle-down effect. While the classes are on a curve and there is competition, the students still help each other, and there is a sense of camaraderie within the student body. The SBA’s vision for this year is to facilitate the educational and professional needs of the students. Our long-term goal is to help students pass the bar and develop their careers after graduation, and this year we want to facilitate the educational and professional needs of the students to that ultimate end.

T RINI T Y L AW REVIEW // The Trinity Law Review is a scholarly journal published twice a year by our law students. It features scholarly articles on a broad range of legal topics and helps showcase the intellectual capacity of our students. Students who are academically at the top of their respective classes are invited to be on law review. The quality of the law review as a whole also depends upon the quality of the articles published. In the most recent issue, we published an article titled “Natural Law and Free Labor” by Boston attorney Robert Boyle. Boyle told us that after publication the article was read by Harvard Law professor Steven Pinker and MIT professor Noam Chomsky, who are both staunch atheists. The fact that these widely known modern intellectuals

Editor-In-Chief: George Baseluos | Advisor: Professor Adeline Allen

are making the time to read a law review article from a small Christian law school like Trinity is significant for us. Many times people try to oversimplify Christianity. On one level it's simple: Jesus Christ died for our sins. But on a deeper level, it is much more complex. The Western legal tradition and natural law are rooted in Christianity. Christians are thinkers: In fact, some of the deepest intellectual discussions that have ever taken place in the history of the world are by Christian theologians: St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and C.S. Lewis to name a few. I see Trinity Law Review as continuing this intellectual mission of the Christian faith.

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CLERK S H I P S & I N T E R N S HIP S

I N THE C O U RT R O O M

Making Justice Their Mission: Law Clerkships & Legal Internships

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

Trinity Law School students seized a chance to flex their legal muscles in courtrooms across Southern California this summer while serving as law clerks and legal interns. These prestigious positions provided valuable experience in trial preparation and courtroom protocol. Assignments included: conducting legal research; transcribing jailhouse interviews; writing petitions, memos, motions and briefs; and handling arraignments, preliminary, pre-trial, and post-conviction hearings under the supervision of prosecutors and public defenders. Three students separately volunteered as certified mediators. Even though Trinity is modest in size, these law students were able to secure these highly coveted positions in a competitive marketplace. A L BERT O RA MO S ( 3 L )

Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Torrance, CA MEH A R N I S A S H EI K H ( 2 L )

Legal Intern, Office of the Riverside County Public Defender, Indio, CA Certified Mediator, Riverside County Superior Court, Indio, CA MAT T RU PP ( 3 L )

Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Long Beach, CA G EO RG E BA S EL U O S ( 3 L )

Legal Intern, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Torrance, CA CH RI S T O PH ER BO RZI N ( 3 L )

Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Long Beach, CA J A MI L EH S A RA BI A N ( 3 L )

Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Long Beach, CA T I M A L MO N D ( 3 L )

Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Riverside County Public Defender, Riverside, CA Certified Mediator, Riverside County Superior Court, Riverside, CA

[Not pictured: Antonette Crenshaw (2L), Certified Law Clerk, Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Downtown Los Angeles, CA and Sandra Kim (3L), Certified Mediator, Orange County Superior Court, Fullerton, CA.]

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FA IT H

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

T H E M IS LIVES: A COUNTERCULTURAL VISION OF LAW by Dr. Thaddeus Williams

itianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sixteenth century canvas says something profound about a Christian vision of law. The artist has painted another artist, a musician in the creative process, composing a song on his lute. Our young musician gazes over

his right shoulder to behold a reclining woman, wearing jewelry and nearly nothing else. Was Titian trying to paint a literal event? Was there some strange custom of musicians gazing at women au naturale? Not that we know of. What we do know is that through the Renaissance many artists revived mythic

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FA IT H // T H E MI S L IVE S : A COUNTERCULTURAL VISION OF LAW

gods and goddesses from the pages of Roman antiquity not as objects of religious worship per se but as visual symbols for whatever invisible realities they wanted to capture with paint. Consider how, in our day, a towering woman in a spiked hat with a torch symbolizes liberty, or a baby with a bow and arrow represents romantic love, or a young virgin dressed in white stands for truth.

We can’t easily paint love or beauty. It’s much easier to paint a reclining nude deity named Venus who symbolized love and beauty. That is exactly what Titian has done in this work, appropriately titled Venus and the Lute Player. For Titian, the true artist is not hyperfocused on his own interior life. Rather, he is transfixed by a beauty beyond himself. He finds creative inspiration not in self-obsession

just man’s feelings and man’s subjective taste; they were really there: if he did not follow them, hate and ugliness would be the result.1 THEM I S A N D THE LAWYE R So what does Titian’s painting say to us today? Like the lute player, Christians seeking beauty, truth, goodness, and justice, whether as artists, parents, citizens, students, policy-makers, or lawyers, must look beyond ourselves. Rookmaaker was right. There are realities outside man and unless we reflect them in our life and work, hate and ugliness will be the result of our endeavors. If Titian’s painting were reimagined for the Christian lawyer, we might picture a lawyer writing a brief, engaging with a client, standing before a judge, or zealously arguing a case and all the while gazing backward to behold a blindfolded woman holding scales (the Roman personification of justice named Themis). We must remind ourselves often that justice is not the same thing as our ‘subjective taste.’ She is always bigger than us, a reality that transcends our personal prejudices, the cultural zeitgeist, the political power trends of the day, and even the legal system itself.

but in the objectively beautiful. According to the Dutch art critic, Hans Rookmaaker:

[Titian’s] was a world in which it was possible to speak of the reality of such concepts as beauty or love. They were realities outside man, and man in his life and work had to reflect them, to realize them by working according to them. Love and beauty were not

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There is something radically countercultural about this vision of Themis and the lawyer. Over the last three centuries, the West has witnessed the systematic demise of Beauty (Venus), Truth (Veritas), Love (Cupid), and Justice (Themis). It is no longer in style to speak of the objective reality of any of these four qualities. It is no longer in style to speak of the objective reality of Beauty, Truth, Love, and Justice. When it comes to beauty, “there are no a priori aesthetic values.”2 Truth becomes “[nothing] more than what our peers… will let us get away with saying.”3 Love reduces to “two minutes a fifty-two seconds of squelching noises,”4 and ethics “an illusion fobbed on us by our genes.”5 As for justice, “There is no standard, not even a divine one,

against which the decisions of a free people can be measured.”6 Though (thankfully) there are exceptions who resist the reductivist and relativistic spirit of the age, it is safe to say that we no longer inhabit Titian’s world in which “it was possible to speak of the reality” of such values. TWO KIN DS O F LEGA L EDU CAT I O N Once a culture declares the death of Themis, it is only a matter of time until we resurrect Narcissus or Cratus to take her place. No longer inspired by a vision of justice, self-glory in the personal sphere and power-for-power’s sake in the socio-political sphere become the last guiding motives. This cultural worldview shift brings with it two very different ways to pursue legal education. If we are remnants of Titian’s world in which justice remains a living, breathing reality, then law school becomes a place where we can seriously reckon with questions like ‘What is Justice? What makes a law or a society just (or unjust)? How do we integrate justice into our dealings with clients, colleagues, and courts? What are the moral, intellectual, and professional virtues I must cultivate to be a just lawyer? If, however, we declare the death of objective justice, then law school can easily devolve into little more than black letter law indoctrination. The student encounters a seemingly arbitrary mass of free-floating data, untethered from any meaningful narrative of human flourishing, without regard for what lies above and under law.

1. Hans Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994), 27. 2. Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1957), 42. 3. Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 176.

Of course, learning the content and complexities of law is essential to the warp and woof of any adequate legal education. But without looking over our shoulders, like Titian’s lute player, we can easily miss the point. The book of law, read without an eye for justice, may share the same effect as The Green Book of Gaius and Titius; that is, in C.S. Lewis' words, it may be used “to produce what may be called Men without Chests.”7 The lawyer, in such a culture, does not emerge from the kilns of law school refined for the professional pursuit of justice. Rather, he is an “urban blockhead to whom a horse is merely an old-fashioned means of transport,”8 and to whom, we may add, “law is merely a culture-crafted means to a big salary.” L AW AN D THE E X I S TEN CE OF GOD What we are really talking about if we move from metaphors to reality, the issue behind the issue in legal education, is the existence of God. Devout atheist Jean-Paul Sartre argued that it is

…very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him; there can no longer be an a priori Good… Nowhere is it written that the Good exists, that we must be honest, that 6. Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 16. 7. C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001), 25.

we must not lie; because the fact is we are on a plane where there are only men… Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist... and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to.9 In short, with the death of God comes the death of law’s meaning.

Sartre drew a logically valid conclusion, but from a false premise. God is not dead. ‘The Good’ does exist. There are not ‘only men.’ There is Someone beautiful and inspiring behind the lute player and the lawyer. As we turn daily and look, our study and practice of law becomes something countercultural and redemptive.10 We find from beyond ourselves a new vigor to heed Isaiah’s ancient command: Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. I SAI AH 1:17 T H A D D E U S WI L L I A M S Assistant Professor of Jurisprudence at Trinity Law School

8. Ibid., 11.

4. An Interview with Johnny Rotten.

9. Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotion, 22.

5. Michael Ruse, “The Evolution of Ethics,” in Religion and the Natural Sciences, ed. J.E. Huchingson (Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1993), 308-11: 310.

10. For deeper analysis see Michael Schutt, Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (Downers Grove: IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007).

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JU S T ICE

IN DEFENSE OF THOSE WHO PURSUE RE LIGIO US L I B E RT Y by Michael J. Peffer

s the director of the Southern California office of the Pacific Justice Institute, a public interest law firm, I am often asked if a vigorous defense of religious freedom is really necessary in the United States. “After all,” some say, “isn’t the United States a Christian nation where people are free to practice their religion?” Ignoring the debatable proposition that American is currently a “Christian” nation, there is no doubt that people of faith presently have broad rights in America. United States citizens need not worry that standing up for their faith will mean a harsh punishment or even death, as is the case in some countries in the world. However, while we are protected from imprisonment for our faith, U.S. citizens are witnessing ever-increasing attempts to limit the right to believe and put into practice the truths of the Bible. If we look to our neighbors to the north, we can see a cautionary tale of what the future may hold for those of us in the U.S. What Trinity Western University, a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, has endured demonstrates a real and present danger to religious liberty on both sides of the border. For the last two years, Trinity Western University, a well-regarded, nationally-accredited Christian college located about 30 miles southeast of Vancouver, has attempted to open a law school. While of course opening a law school is a

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

demanding undertaking, the challenge here has been wholly separate from the general difficulties of starting a new law school. The opposition has nothing to do with the overabundance of law schools in Canada or a lack of resources to support the new law school. Instead, the opposition to this new school from both private and government actors is based on the beliefs espoused by the school.

Trinity Western University requires its students to sign a “Community Covenant.” This covenant requires students to commit to, among other things, “reserve sexual expressions of intimacy for marriage,” which, according to the covenant, is defined in the Bible as between one man and one woman. Because of this requirement, many view this covenant as an attack on homosexuals themselves. Thus, the school has faced attacks from the government, law groups, and various private individuals. This protest is part of a widespread movement in North America that seeks not just the acceptance of homosexual behavior but a repudiation of any belief system that disagrees with this lifestyle. The battle to legalize same-sex marriage across America has spawned vitriolic debate that continues unabated to this day. Over the last several decades, many of those who

support same-sex marriage have sought to eradicate any public discourse that is critical of homosexuality, including any opposition to same-sex marriage. This, however, creates a challenge for Christians who believe that the Bible is clear in its prohibition of homosexual behavior. These Christians now face challenges based on their own belief system. And the United States federal government is now amplifying those challenges. On July 21, 2014, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13672, which prohibits discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity for employees of the federal government and federal contractors. According to the White House, this order was necessary because “no current federal law adequately protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workers from employment discrimination.” President Obama’s order does leave intact the exemption (created by President George W. Bush in Executive Order 13279 from December 12, 2002) allowing religiouslyaffiliated employers to prefer members of their own religion in their hiring decisions. However, President Obama’s executive order created no exemption for faith-based institutions whose doctrinal creed forbids homosexual conduct. Of course at this point, President Obama’s executive order applies only to faith-based companies that are also federal contractors. However, this is no guarantee that the requirement will stop with federal contractors. One can easily imagine how this order will eventually lead to broader action against all faith-based employers. This possibility led many notable Christian leaders to write to President Obama in early July 2014 to request

an exemption for faith-based employers who are also federal contractors. They expressed their concern that an effort to prohibit discrimination against one group (homosexuals) would lead to discrimination against another group (faith-based employers). The Obama administration denied their request for such an exemption. We must be aware that we can no longer take our religious freedom for granted or assume that our constitutional liberties are protected. Instead, we must stand up and defend these fundamental rights whenever necessary. If we do not defend our liberties, we risk losing them. We already have an example in Trinity Western University of what can happen when an academic institution holds a point of view on homosexuality that is informed by the Bible but is seen as unpopular in the public square. We must beware and do all that we can to preserve our religious liberties, lest we look to our neighbors to the north and see our future. MICHAEL J. PEFFER is Director of Pacific Justice Institute and Senior Counsel. He is also an Adjunct Professor and an alumnus.

Fort Langley, British Columbia

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ADM IS S I O N S

D IVERS IT Y O F PAS S I O N S by Jessica Frieberg

rinity Law School exists to perform restorative and redemptive work in the world and to send forth attorneys who understand their part in relieving injustice in our broken world. Our goal is to train attorneys who view their work as ministry, and who understand that they are uniquely trained and equipped through a rich variety of clinical programs, fellowships, and other learning opportunities to restore dignity and bring forth justice where both have been lost and ignored. Our students come from diverse ethnic, religious, and educational backgrounds which inform and influence their desires and passions. Our students represent the rich cultures and values of fourteen countries. Our student body has the ability to minister to their clients in sixteen languages and connect with people across the globe who

Trinity Law School Class of 2014

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

observe religious traditions spanning all of the world’s major religious practices. Students at Trinity Law School are trained to recognize, address, and resolve a myriad of legal issues. What sets Trinity apart from other law schools, and what makes a Christian attorney different from all others, is that Trinity students and Christian lawyers see the world in terms of service, not personal gain. Trinity Law School is dedicated to exposing students to a wide variety of foreign and domestic organizations in the hopes of demonstrating the immense need in the world and the ways in which they can address those needs as attorneys. With this incredible diversity of experience and passions, our students can do anything – and they do! Our graduates practice in

business law, family law, criminal law and everything in between. They volunteer time to assist human rights and civil rights agencies, churches, and charities. They provide pro-bono services to underserved communities and they do it all fueled by their unique desires and experiences. For Trinity students, legal education is about more than a good career; it is about the pursuit of all things good, true, and noble. Trinity Law School is dedicated to training attorneys who will embrace the world’s needs equipped with excellent legal training and courageous commitment to the truth of the Bible. J E S S I C A F R I E BE R G Associate Director of Academic Services for Trinity Law School

Shideh Balali

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DEA N ’S B O O K RE VIE W

B OOK RE VIE W: A N EW & CON CI SE I N TROD UCTI ON TO A C H R I STI A N WO R L DV I E W by Myron S. Steeves Christian Worldview: A Student's Guide by Philip Graham Ryken One of the more difficult concepts to describe concisely is the definition and explanation of a Christian worldview. The young Christian and the Christian who has not thought deeply about the cultural implications of being a Christian can struggle with the concept. They may desire to view the world through the lens of their faith, but are not certain entirely how to do so. To those who already have a deeply internalized frame of reference for interpreting the world, it is difficult to articulate why their views of the world around them have become what they are. Yet a Christian worldview is a very real thing, evidenced by the fact that Christians who are deeply committed to their faith tend to respond in predictable ways to the same stimuli. For example, Christians who are disciplined in reading the Bible regularly, are active in church life, and talk about their faith with other Christians will tend to view public policy issues in a similar way. They tend to be skeptical of statements that people control their own destiny. They are uneasy in discussions in which human beings are equated with animals. They also are cautious about unconventional defining of family roles. These common responses within the Christian community arise from assumptions and conclusions that are shared by substantially all who are serious about their faith. However, an attempt to reduce these assumptions and conclusions to a few key beliefs risks oversimplifying to the extent that it is misleading. This is a challenge to the outside observer of Christianity who seeks to explain why we think the way we do. But it can also be a challenge to the Christian who seeks to interact with the world in a meaningful way that represents their relationship with God.

Wheaton College President Philip Ryken has written a clear and concise introduction to the Christian Worldview, directed towards students, but valuable to all Christians. This brief book is one of a several in the "Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition" series published by Crossway, and edited by the president of Trinity International University, Dr. David S. Dockery. While there have been several outstanding books that provide a great analysis of the Christian Worldview, such as James Sire's The Universe Next Door, Dr. Ryken's book presents an approach that is valuable because of its survey of the field in a work that can be easily read in just a few hours. In that way, it provides the perfect introduction for those who are just beginning to explore this area of thought. The first chapter surveys the worldview idea in a way that is remarkably detailed for its brevity. It is followed by chapters that cover the key facts that inform a Christian worldview: The Creation (including man being made in God's image, the Fall, Grace (addressing the centrality of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection to salvation from the effects of the Fall), and Glory. This organization of a Christian worldview is a helpful way to understand how these facts inform how Christians view the world in all its complexity. While the book and the series of which it is a part are designed primarily to instruct the Christian student entering the intellectual life of the university, it is a book that can be read by all to great enrichment in understanding history and ideas through the lens of the Christian faith. MYRON S. STEEVES Dean of Trinity Law School

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BOOK B RI E F S

B O O K B RIE F S : T HE S EL ECT IO N O F B O O K S F E AT UR E D I N THI S SECTI ON I S R ECOM M EN DED READI N G FR O M A GR O UP O F T R I NI T Y L AW SCHOOL A DVOCATES. The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order, by Francis Fukuyama

Reviewed by Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. The 1960s and 1970s were a period of not only sexual revolution, but also a time during which moral standards were violated in other ways. The corresponding high crime rates tell the story. The question is, why then? Author Francis Fukuyama provides the answers in his book, The Great Disruption. He says society was passing from an industrial era to an information era, and increasingly jobs became related to services (banking, computers, government agencies) and communication technology (television, radio, fax, and email). Mental labor replaced physical labor, asserts Fuyukama. The results were similar to the high crime rate and other “disruptions” occurring 200 years earlier, he says, during the transition from the agricultural to the industrial order. But a key difference in the more recent turning was characterized by the fact that the new information technology jobs could be as easily done by women as by men, unlike industrial labor. One possible outcome is more and more we might think of women and men as infinitely substitutable for one another. This includes the current attempt to redefine marriage, where the spouse of a man or the spouse of a woman may interchangeable for a man or a woman. A medical innovation generally called “The Pill” contributed to this confusion after 1960 by making people believe it was possible to detach sexual pleasure from the making of babies. But human beings must have a moral order of some kind. And one will be restored. However, it may look very different than the one embraced by historic Christians. The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis

Reviewed by Dr. Francis J. Beckwith The focus of The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis is to offer a critique of those who believe that morality is subjective, which is largely a result of believing that the hard sciences provide the only means by which we can know anything. According to this view, because the hard sciences can provide no insights as to whether anything in nature, including human beings and their acts, are intrinsically good or evil, good and evil cannot be in the world per se. Those who hold this perspective believe good and evil are merely an imposition of our minds upon the world, arising in most cases from emotion, sentiment, and feeling. Sound familiar? Lewis published this book in 1947! Yet, many of the major cultural debates in the modern world are the result of the philosophy of nature that Lewis criticizes in this short and powerful book. [NOTE: A new book by Dr. Francis J. Beckwith titled Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith is scheduled for release in 2015.]

H OWA RD F. A HMA NS O N, JR.

Founder, Fieldstead & Company, Inc. and a Trinity Law School Advisory Board Member

D R . F RA NC IS J. BE C K WIT H

Professor of Philosophy, Baylor University and a Trinity Law School Advisory Board Member

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BOOK B RI E F S

B OOK B RIE F S , continued The Ascent of Christian Law: Patristic and Byzantine Formulations of a New Civilization, by John McGuckin

D R . S A MU EL G R E GG

Reviewed by Dr. Samuel Gregg The Ascent of Christian Law: Patristic and Byzantine Formulations of a New Civilization is a very good introduction to the early Christian church and the way it thought about and developed legal systems. Author John McGuckin examines the ways in which Scriptural mandates were synthesized with Roman law, primarily through examining the Greek Fathers and legal systems of the Byzantine Empire, though the Latin Fathers of the Church also receive attention. The book itself is an integration of theology, history and law. It looks at the law articulated in the Old Testament and the way that this was understood by the early Christians, as well as the legal systems of pre-Christian Greece and Rome. Successive chapters unfold the processes by which the Church in the East contributed to this development through, among other things, the canonical Epistles of the twelve Eastern Fathers, the synods of the Eastern Church, and the codifications of Roman law by Byzantine legal thinkers and canonists.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, by Allen C. Guelzo

Reviewed by Thomas Minnery In Daniel’s day, God bent the will of secular leaders to His divine purposes and, we wonder, does He do that in New Testament times? The remarkable events of September, 1862, in the depths of the Civil War, left no doubt of God’s miraculous intervention in the emancipation of the slaves, at least in the mind of Abraham Lincoln. He told his startled cabinet that God had settled the slavery question, he himself had not. The events are told compellingly in Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, by Allen Guelzo, the noted Lincoln scholar at Gettysburg College. The incident should remind us always to pray for God’s hand to guide in the tangled affairs of today’s government leaders.

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Research Director, Acton Institute and 2014 Trinity Law School Commencement Speaker

T H O MA S M I N NERY

President and CEO of CitzenLink, the public policy partner of Focus on the Family. Minnery is an alumnus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom, by Steven D. Smith

KE N MY ERS

Reviewed by Ken Myers Author Steven D. Smith, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, makes the case in Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom that there is no religiously neutral understanding of religious neutrality or of religious freedom. Every such principle presented assumes something about the nature of religion and its consequences. As Smith notes, “any account of religious freedom will necessarily depend on – and hence will stand or fall along with – more basic background beliefs concerning matters of religion and theology, the proper role of government, and ‘human nature.’” As Christians feel more and more embattled and eager to defend their claim to religious freedom, we need to be more realistic about how fragile our (Enlightenment-based) claims actually are.

Thy Word is Still Truth, by Peter A. Lillback and Richard B. Gaffin Jr.

Reviewed by Marvin Olasky “A magnificent compendium.” That’s what theologian David Wells calls Thy Word Is Still Truth, edited by Peter A. Lillback and Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., and he’s right. Its 1,392 pages contain 500 years of great writing on the doctrine of Scripture, including excerpts from Luther and Calvin, Reformation sermons from Zwingli and Bullinger, Reformed confessions (Belgic, Heidelberg, Helvetic, Westminster, and more), and Puritan writings from Owen, Edwards, and others. And wait, wait—there’s more: Bavinck and Berkhof, Hodge and Warfield, Machen and Wilson, Van Til and Murray, Stonehouse and Clowney, Ferguson and Frame, all the way to a recent Westminster Theological Seminary controversy.

Producer/Host, Mars Hills Audio Journal

MA RV IN O LA S K Y

Editor in Chief of WORLD News Group and 2015 Trinity Law School Commencement Speaker

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REFLECT I O NS

K EV IN H O L SCL AW: REFLECTIONS OF A CAPITOL HILL LAWYER by Michelle Eaton

The Orange County Christian Legal Society is drawing guest speakers from near and far for the 2014 - 2015 luncheon series. In September, former Dean of Trinity Law School, Kevin Holsclaw, visited from Washington, D.C. to share insights from his experience as a Christian attorney working in state and federal government.

Kevin Holsclaw

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Holsclaw graduated from Whittier College, earned his J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, and was awarded an M.A. in Faith and Culture from Trinity Graduate School. He has dedicated his life to impacting the culture for Jesus Christ, even in the midst of a working environment inhospitable to those who live out their Christian faith.

He is the recipient of the Marvin Award for outstanding service to the National Association of Attorneys General and the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the highest award presented by the U.S. Department of Justice. His career has enabled him to observe firsthand how elected officials and policymakers treat matters of religion and spirituality.

Holsclaw worked on Capitol Hill as Legislative Director for California Congressman Dan Lungren, and as a staff attorney for the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee. He also held positions at the U.S. Department of Justice and the California Department of Justice.

Holsclaw shared that Washington, D.C. falls far short from being “A City On A Hill” – a metaphor used by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount to describe Christian leadership. In fact, he says, God is not very popular in American politics these days.

“There has been a trivialization of religious belief, there are some among the political elites who view any motive that might be connected to faith as being suspect. But this ideological bias is quite predominant in the culture of Washington, D.C. and has an impact on public policy.”

“There has been a trivialization of religious belief,” explained Holsclaw. “There are some among the political elites who view any motive that might be connected to faith as being suspect. This is clearly bogus, because the motive of an individual has nothing to do with the truth or falsity of what he or she might be asserting. But this ideological bias is quite predominant in the culture of Washington, D.C. and has an impact on public policy.” Those who live and work inside the beltway tend to derive their entire identity from their professional pursuits. As a result, spiritual lives falter and fade, said Holsclaw. “The workload you are confronted with can come at a huge cost to your soul,” he lamented. “You push everything else to the corners of your life in order to do the work that you need to do in an environment that is largely hostile to everything you believe in.”

“He said, ‘Where you have less grace, you are going to have a lot more law,’” recalled Holsclaw. “And I think that it is a really important observation. Alexis DeToqueville said the same thing when he came to the U.S. in the 1830s. He saw how important religion was in the individual lives of Americans in terms of creating incentives for self-restraint. And, he drew the conclusion that due to the strong churches in America, unlike in France, not as much government was needed.” Holsclaw believes the hope for our nation lies in a cultural revival and a return to ethical monotheism “A legal education is central to this proposition,” said Holsclaw. “That is why Trinity has such an important role to play. Students who graduate from here have learned the importance of integrating faith and law. Thus, they can have a huge impact on different segments of society.”

A reformed culture is best informed by a grounding in Judeo-Christian values and ordered liberty, he noted, concepts represented in ethical monotheism. Holsclaw, who recently retired, plans to write a book one day. “I would like to apply the political philosophy of Edmund Burke to several problems facing our nation today,” shared Holsclaw. “Burke looked at the French Revolution critically in terms of how divorcing ideology from facts can lead to very undesirable results.” Holsclaw centers his life on God first and then family. He has been married for 35 years to his wife, Michele. They have two sons. In his spare time he likes to read mostly philosophy and history. He also works out six days a week by lifting weights and riding “the beautiful Virginia bike trails.”

But the culture of Washington, D.C. does not reflect the leanings of the majority of the nation. In fact, a very different picture emerges when one leaves the nation’s capital. “It is so different than the rest of the country,” said Holsclaw. “Millions of Americans have their deepest beliefs informed by their religious values.” The irony, noted Holsclaw, is that governing becomes more difficult when God is purged from the equation. He noted that theologian David Wells expressed it best at the God & Governing conference sponsored by Trinity Law School in 2008. Shelley Henderson, Kevin Holsclaw and Michelle Eaton

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GUES T CO LUMNI ST

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T HE C HRIS T IA N L AW S C H O O L : NEGAT I V E , N E U T R AL O R N U RT U R I N G ? by Dr. Jeffery J. Ventrella

hristian law schools are largely viewed negatively by the world, as somehow deficient in training for the legal profession. Others may say such training is simply neutral, construing and applying the positive law, but with piety combined with a sanitized decorum. On the contrary, despite such common notions, studying the law from a Christian perspective actually nurtures the student and his understanding and practice of law. Here’s why.

Solomon puts it bluntly: “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked” (Prov. 28:4). His prime point is with respect to ethics or law—how we act—there can be no neutrality. Wickedness—the opposite of justice—not only thrives but is praised when a righteous standard of conduct is unreferenced or abandoned. Correlatively, when we study and then practice law without reference to the Law standing above the positive law, we automatically become cheerleaders for the wicked. Similarly, Solomon also tells us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7) and that “evil men do not

understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely” (1:7; 28:5). Thus epistemology – what we know and how we know it – likewise is not a neutral endeavor. Real, that is, justified, knowledge commences with considering God and his ways, and this includes knowing justice. To the extent we attempt to learn and know what is just apart from seeking God, our understanding will be incomplete, defective, and erroneous, thereby producing injustice.

If we desire to study law to maximally cultivate human flourishing by promoting justice, we must do so intentionally under Christ’s lordship: fully exploring how the law—the standard—can be known and applied in and to our very lives. To the extent we fail to do so, we will by default “praise the wicked,” and our understanding and application of justice will be incomplete, thereby triggering injustice in the nature of the case.

Finally, regarding ontology or the study of what exists, Paul tells us that it is in Christ “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Our very lives in reality exist in a God-bubble, whether or not we acknowledge it. To ignore this means one would be studying law detached from “real reality.”

Accordingly, it behooves any student to carefully ponder how he wishes to study law. And that means he needs to consider where to study law. An integrated institution like Trinity, one committed to Christ’s epistemic, ontological, and ethical lordship, uniquely equips students from the perspective of the One who has “redeemed us from all lawlessness” (Titus 2:4). Think deeply and choose well; and appreciate the foundation Trinity provides for pursuing the virtue of justice in a nurturing—not a neutral or negative—environment.

Scripture tells us therefore that every area of philosophy is rooted in the triune God of the Bible. Ultimately, we cannot rightly exist, know, or act with justification apart from a Christian view of God’s world— and this is also true whether or not it’s acknowledged. Not least, it profoundly impacts what we know about, and how we study and practice the law. To be most fully human means living coram Deo, that is, before the face of God. And, when we do this intentionally, we thrive and flourish as humans. This means that Christ the Lord is Lord of our knowledge, our conduct, and our very being—and this necessarily includes our legal lives. But what about studying the law?

JEFFERY J. VENTRELLA (J.D., Ph.D.) serves as Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Student Training & Development for Alliance Defending Freedom and is aTrinity Law School Advisory Board Member

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T RINIT Y NE W S B RIE F S

T HE SIDE B A R DAVID S. DOCKERY TRINITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY’S 15TH PRESIDENT by Chris Donato

TR I N I TY LAW SCHOOL WELCOM ES N EW DI R ECTOR OF A CA DEM I C SU PPORT Joining the staff of Trinity Law School is a homecoming of sorts for attorney Alexandra Snyder. Snyder, the new Director of Academic Support, is a Trinity alumna. She is glad to be back on campus to help train future attorneys on the larger purpose of their calling to the law.

CHRIS D O NATO

Director of Communications for Trinity International University

Dr. Dockery says “ I have a genuine sense of honor and humility at the opportunity that Trinity International’s Board of Regents has extended to us to serve as the next President of Trinity International University. Lanese and I are overwhelmingly grateful. We will count it a great privilege to serve the students, staff, faculty, and Trinity’s various institutional constituencies in the days to come.” President Dockery has been at his new post since late February. A native of Birmingham, Ala., Dr. Dockery and his wife, Lanese have been married for 38 years. They have three married sons and six grandchildren.

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Zoe’s Children.

Snyder also has a background in public policy. She served as Legislative Counsel to a California member of Congress, working in both Washington, D.C. and the Sacramento area. And, she has produced and co-hosted talk radio programs on human rights in Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C.

During Dr. Dockery’s 18-year tenure as Union University President, the institution saw sixteen straight years of increased enrollment and more than doubled in size, growing from a Fall enrollment of 1,972 to 4,288 in 2013. Donors increased from more than 1,600 to 6,000 annually. The budget expanded from $18 million to more than $90 million per year, and the university’s net assets grew from less than $40 million to $120 million. President Dockery completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Texas and holds master’s degrees from Texas Christian University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Grace Seminary, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Dr. Dockery is the author or editor of 35 books or series, including Renewing Minds, Faith and Learning, Theologians of the Baptist Tradition, New Testament Interpretation and Criticism, and Biblical Interpretation Then and Now, He has spoken at major conference and lectureships at dozens of churches, state conventions, colleges, and seminaries.

non-profit legal aid clinic in Sacramento providing pro bono legal services to underserved women and families; and also also worked with a number of non-profits that assist survivors of human trafficking, including Courage Worldwide and

Snyder is married to husband John Snyder and has two grown sons.

“It is clear from Bible passages like Micah 6:8 and Isaiah 1:17 that we are called to remedy injustice,” shares Snyder. “We are called to do -- to labor for, to maintain, to be occupied with -- justice.” In order to know how to do obey God in this area, Snyder explains that we must “have an understanding of what justice looks like from His perspective.” And, Trinity provides a means to impart this knowledge. “I love Trinity because we offer something that is unique, even among Christian law schools,” explains Snyder. “We teach the law as it is and the law as it should be. Students learn a basis for law that is grounded in the Bible and in natural law.” Prior to coming to Trinity, Snyder established The Justice Clinic, a

TR I N I TY LAW SC HOO L N A M ED ON E OF THE M OST DEVOU T LAW SCHOOLS I N AME RIC A The National Jurist, a popular monthly magazine featuring the latest in law school news, this year identified the 52 best law schools in the U.S for “devout” students of major religions. Trinity Law School took second place in the “Christian schools other than Catholic” category:

1. Liberty University School of Law 2. Trinity Law School at Trinity International University 3. Regent University School of Law 4. Pepperdine University School of Law 5. Baylor University School of Law

DEA N , PR O FES S O R , S T UD E N T S PART I C I PATE IN U S - KO R EA L AW D AY Trinity Law School enjoyed a strong presence at the third annual US-Korea Law Day held in July at the Kia Motors of America corporate headquarters in Irvine, CA. Dean Myron S. Steeves, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Professor Ryul Kim, and several law students took part in the one-day event hosted by the US-Korea Law Foundation. Kim serves as the chair of the US-Korea Foundation.

The goal of the annual gathering is to help facilitate academic, legal, business, community and government partnerships between the U.S. and Korea. Dean Steeves moderated the “US-Korea Law Practice Update” panel, featuring discussions on “Korean Criminal Complaint System: Better Than the US?,” “Recent Supreme Court Cases That Can Impact NPE Patent Litigation,” and “Enforcing Confidentiality and Trade Secrets Agreements.” Damoun Aliyazdi, president of the new ADR Society on campus, said he was inspired by a speech by Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Xerox Corporation, Don H. Liu.

“Liu described the struggles he had to overcome to reach the position he is in today.” Aliyazdi said Liu also credited his success in part to understanding the importance of networking. “He explained that individuals must promote themselves,” in order to get noticed. International Law Students Association (ILSA) president Jonathan Yong put this advice into practice immediately...“Over the course of the day, I met 23 different lawyers and collected at least 15 business cards. Was the day good for networking? Absolutely!”

In addition to fostering connections between the U.S.A. and Korea, another objective of the organization is to establish a comparative study of the law and legal systems of these two countries as a distinguished academic discipline.

Professor Ryul Kim and Dean Myron Steeves

2 0 1 4 COM M EN CEM EN T SPEA K ER : N ATU R A L LAW & HI GHER TR U THS The words of Dr. Samuel Gregg of The Acton Institute are still echoing in the ears of the Trinity Law School Class of 2014. Dr. Gregg served as the keynote speaker for the 32nd commencement ceremony of the law school. The noted Christian philosopher and economist shared important truths about the nature of law with the five dozen graduates and hundreds of guests gathered at the Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton. “The elimination of the idea of God as simultaneously Divine Love, Divine Reason and Divine Justice, and His replacement with a vision of Christ as someone who ‘demands nothing, never scolds, who accepts everyone and everything, who no longer does anything except affirm us,’ has consequences,” shared Gregg. “It cannot help but hollow out any legal system profoundly grounded in the Christian religion and the natural law.” He said attorneys have a unique opportunity to help shape the culture.

“Given the extent to which Christian lawyers deal with law as an ordinance of reason for the common good, they are in a position to point to the higher truths that are indicated by the natural law and reason itself.” Gregg also reminded the audience that attorneys are imbued with a special responsibility. “Never forget that, as lawyers, you are called to be co-workers in the truth in a particular way.” Gregg credits Trinity for training law students to fulfill an important mission. The law school “is grounding men and women in the deeper philosophical and theological foundations of the Western legal tradition,” and in doing so is making an “indispensable contribution” to securing the American ideal of ordered liberty, he said. Dr. Gregg earned a Ph.D. in moral philosophy and political economy from the University of Oxford. The Acton Institute promotes the protection of individual liberty and religious principles in furtherance of a free and virtuous society.

Dr. Samuel Gregg, Dean Myron Steeves and Invocation Speaker – Robert Ming

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S T UDENT NE W S B R IE F S

T HE IN F O RMAT IO N TH E CA P S T O N E

HU M A N R I GHTS LAW

Becoming a member of the California Bar Association is no small feat. The final step is the attorney swearing-in. Trinity Class of 2014 graduate Dustin Lozano chose to hold his official ceremony on the campus of Trinity Law School shortly after learning he had passed the bar on his first attempt. The special occasion unfolded as a celebration of faith, family and friendship. Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco F. Firmat prayed over Lozano with Lozano’s wife, parents, classmates and other guests before administering the solemn oath.

For the 33rd year in a row, a group of Trinity Law School students, professors and their guests got the opportunity to attend the International

Institute on Human Rights in Strasbourg, France this summer

act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Lozano said the event was very meaningful. “I felt the weight of what I was saying. It was also the capstone on three years of hard work.” He also shared his simple formula for achieving success in law school. “Learn the law and its application. Brief every case. No shortcuts.”

“Dustin, we surrender you to God. We place his angels all around you. To keep you safe and to give you the wisdom of Solomon, that you may serve with grace and kindness. And as Micah 6:8 implores that you

Faith played a key role for Lozano on the road to becoming an attorney. “Jesus is the source of true strength and power. If you truly believe you can do all things through Christ, then you will have all the confidence in the world, both during school and the bar exam.” What is he doing with his new bar card? “I practice construction and business litigation. I'm perfectly content in this area of the law.”

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through a unique study abroad program operated by the Trinity Law School Center for Human Rights. Advanced courses in international and comparative human rights law are taught there each year by academics and practitioners from around the world who are experts in this field. In addition, a portion of the instruction provided by Trinity faculty gives students the opportunity to examine contemporary human rights issues from a Christian perspective. This year Trinity professors Andrew DeLoach and Stephen Kennedy did the honors. Participants spend the month of July taking interactive

classes, touring human rights governing bodies, exploring historical sites, visiting nearby European cities and experiencing the culture while discussing and debating these matters of global importance. The program is offered every summer for Trinity Law students and interested members of the larger Trinity community, including alumni, attorneys and donors. “My experience in Strasbourg was absolutely life elevating!” Second year Trinity Law student Shelley Henderson shared. “It was wonderful to be in France, and the Institute was incredible, but what really made my trip magical was the opportunity to meet and spend time with law students, attorneys and judges from all over the world. Human rights came alive for me this summer.” “The Strasbourg program provided me the opportunity to

learn about different perspectives on international human rights law from professors and classmates from other countries,” noted Trinity 3L law student Leelon Dua. “To be well-rounded future attorneys, we need to understand these issues.” “The program enabled me to meet law students and attorneys from around the world who care about humanity,” said Trinity 3L law student Delphine Martinez. GRE AT CO U R A GE Trinty Class of 2014 graduate Uche Anene is the first Trinity Law School student to ever earn a prestigious “Foundation Scholarship” from the Black

Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (BWLALA). Anene

was awarded $3,000 recently at an annual lunch held to honor scholarship recipients. The BWLALA tradition of raising funds to “gift” to deserving 2L and 3L law students began in 1975. “I felt truly blessed and honored to be chosen. I am grateful for the generosity of BWLALA.“ The funds have helped Anene cover her bar prep and living expenses since graduation. The extensive application asked Anene to name a favorite book.

“One of my favorite books is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It reminds me of how pure the concept of justice is, and yet how sometimes great courage is required to achieve it,” she said. “The book gives me hope that there are people out there who are not afraid to stand up for people who do not have a voice. BWLALA President Tami L. Warren called the win by Anene “a

victory for the Lord.” She added, “I’m very excited to welcome prayer warriors into the fight!” A H E ART F O R HA I TI

Trinty Class of 2014 graduate Rosalyn Lee is already planning her next trip to Haiti. Just a few months ago she led a team of three Los Angeles-area educators to the impoverished island nation as part of an educational mission. Another

trio of volunteers from San Diego and Cincinnati joined them there. The primary purpose of the Christian service project was to train 72 Haitian teachers and administrators on strategies for coping with trauma and stress. Those who attended were taught how to integrate the instruction into their personal lives and their classrooms to benefit students. Lee and her group of volunteers also taught their adult “pupils” how to make and sell crafts from recycled materials as a way to raise funds for their schools. The six Americans also spent time visiting with orphans. “I have a heart for the people of Haiti and felt God calling me to go,” said Lee, who in addition to working as a full-time teacher also runs the OrFAN International Project, a non-profit established to help “vulnerable and neglected” children worldwide. In the past year, Lee has also twice gone on weekend missions to Mexico with the Trinity Law School Missions & Service Club. The Haiti trip was sponsored by New Antioch Church in Los Angeles in partnership with Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti .

I M A GO DEI Trinity Class of 2014 graduate Wismick St. Jean is still reflecting on what he learned at an Acton

Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty seminar

on human flourishing held in Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this year. The unique, four-day event known as Acton University offered a selection of more than 100 courses on philosophy, theology, and economics.

“I was one among a thousand attendees, including Trinity Law School Dean Myron S. Steeves, Chief Operating Officer Mike Peterson, Associate Professor Dana Clark, Assistant Professor Thaddeus Williams, and Advisory Board Member William Wagner,” said St. Jean. “I was able to go thanks to a scholarship I was awarded for being a student at a Christian law school.” As he explained, the material presented was similar to what is taught in the context classes at Trinity Law School, Legal Institutions & Values and Jurisprudence, including that human beings are created in the image of God, or imago dei, and therefore all people are image bearers and should be treated equally and given dignity and respect.

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“My ‘a-ha!’ moment happened when Andy Crouch, the Executive Editor of Christianity Today, explained that being a healthy image bearer leads to being a flourishing human being and outlined the two main characteristics: high authority and high vulnerability.” High authority is having the capacity to take meaningful action, and high vulnerability is understanding the ever-present risk of suffering a significant loss, explained St. Jean. “That is the core of who we are as human beings,” he shared. “We are powerful and we are vulnerable. Humankind can only flourish when people accept responsibility, dominion, and control over their lives without ignoring their weaknesses. We need each other. And, we don’t know tomorrow. We are very limited even though God gives us all of these powers.”

O F AW E AN D H I STORY For 3L law student Bo Sandelescu, attending

The Federalist Society 2014 Student Leadership Conference in Washington,

D.C., was both instructive and meaningful. Sandelescu, the head of the Trinity Law student chapter of The Federalist Society, joined 200 other conservative and libertarian law school chapter presidents from around the country who gathered at the annual meeting to learn how to run their respective groups and strategize about organization goals. The national office of The Federalist Society covers travel and lodging expenses each year to ensure law students can attend.

“The conference was full of good information, plenty of wit, and interesting presentations,” shared Sandelescu. “We had time to tour a few national monuments, too. On the final night, we went to the U.S. Supreme Court for a mixer with Justice Samuel Alito. It was surreal. On the ground floor of the building there are paintings, busts, photos, and artifacts on display that are part of the U.S. Supreme Court history. The whole trip inspired a feeling of awe and history.”

I N THEORY A N D PR A CTI C E Trinity 3L law student Alice Brewer is applying life lessons learned from her time exploring the heart of the federal government. Brewer spent her Summer 2014 semester living and working in Washington, D.C. on a Legal Studies Institute program thanks to her membership in the Delta Theta Phi (DTP) International Law Fraternity.

(DTP provides information on legal internships and scholarships to law students who are members.) There she served as a legal intern at a criminal defense firm, and attended a Constitutional Law seminar at Georgetown University Law Center. The 37-hour survey course, titled “Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism in Theory and Practice,” included required

reading from the book Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty by famed law professor and casebook author Randy Barnett, who also served as one of her instructors.

The seminar had a significant impact on St. Jean, who was born in Haiti and has witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of poverty.

In addition to the hours in class, Brewer and her fellow students were given a tour of the U.S. Supreme Court followed by a private question-and-answer session with Justice Antonin Scalia. They also were provided with the opportunity to observe a panel discussion about careers in Constitutional litigation.

“I live with this knowledge every day now. It was powerful for me. I keep thinking if everybody could live like that, we would have a better world.”

Justice Samuel Alito and Bo Sandelescu

Guest speakers included attorneys defending Constitutional freedoms in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, such as District of Columbia v. Heller dealing with gun rights, and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby involving religious liberty.

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

“My experience in Washington, D.C. was amazing,” said Brewer. “I learned an incredible amount, and it really helped shape the vision I have of my future as an attorney.”

"I truly enjoyed working with the Casa Cornelia Law Center,” shared Quintana-Hilton. “The staff encouraged me to learn about all of the departments and were always very helpful. But more importantly, I saw that they have the biggest hearts. They genuinely care about their victim-clients. They showed me that one person can make a difference in not only the lives of their clients, but in our society."

T HE B IG G ES T HE ART S

I M PAC T L I T I GATI ON

Trinity 3L law student Cecilia Murillo Quintana-Hilton believes in seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. And now she is more wellequipped to make a difference. Quintana-Hilton recently completed a legal internship for the Casa Cornelia Law Center in San Diego. The public interest law firm exists to provide highquality pro bono legal services to victims of human and civil rights violations. Casa Cornelia is comprised of four departments: Unaccompanied Children, Asylum, Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking. QuintanaHilton worked primarily in the Domestic Violence Program where she drafted independent client petitions under the

Trinity 3L law student Mary Atalla is a compassionate advocate of the impoverished and needy. Last semester Atalla served as a legal intern for the

Justice Antonin Scalia

Violence Against Woman Act (VAWA), but she also helped

process a U-Visa application.

Legal Aid Society of Orange County. The clinic offers free

and low-cost civil legal services to low-income persons in need. The non-profit promotes equal access to the justice system through legal representation, client advocacy, self-help services, economic development and community education. “I interned in the litigation department,” explained Atalla. “I worked closely with an attorney on an impact litigation case concerning the availability of emergency shelters in the City of Fullerton. I performed research and reviewed documents related to municipal zoning. I also drafted

legal documents and reviewed attorney work product.” The clinic divides services into three areas: 1. evaluation, counsel and advice; 2. pro per clinics and workshops, and other self-help services; and 3. direct representation. EVI DEN TI A RY STA N DA R DS Trinity 3L student Martin Vu is inspired to champion the cause of persecuted Christians after serving as a legal intern for the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a Constitutional rights law firm based in Southern California. Vu completed two semesters working at the nonprofit conducting research and writing memos and demand letters for cases receiving national media attention.

said Vu, who says attending a Christian law school has had a life-changing impact on him and his entire family. “I was not a Christ-centered person until I came to Trinity and took the Legal Institutions and Values class taught by Professor Craig Hawkins,” shared Vu, an engineer. “There I learned the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are quantifiable truths based upon objective evidentiary standards, and that the Bible is the mostauthenticated ancient book in history. I now know there is a direct connection between my legal education and supporting the will of God. This links together my faith and my future profession. I want to use my law degree to serve God by helping protect His people.”

As Vu explained, the mission of Advocates for Faith & Freedom is to safeguard the Judeo-Christian principles upon which the U.S. was founded by defeating legal challenges to our fundamental liberties, especially those related to religion, property and person. “These attacks on the American culture that are creating a society increasingly devoid of the message and influence of God,”

Professor Craig Hawkins and Professor Dana Clark

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PREPA R I N G F O R T HE B A R E X A M

BE E N E RG IZED, NOT PARALYZ ED ! PREPARING FOR THE CALIFORNIA BAR EXAM JEFFREY A. FLEMING

is a licensed California attorney specializing in criminal law. He founded Fleming’s Fundamentals of Law (FFOL) in 1982. FFOL specializes in teaching analytical and exam-writing skills to help law school students master law school exams and law school graduates pass the California Bar Exam. Here are some of his “words of wisdom” to help navigate the road to becoming a licensed attorney. What attitude should a law student have towards taking the Bar? Excitement. It is the last hurdle required to practice law. The Bar Exam should energize, not paralyze! What is your best advice for 1L and 2L students looking ahead to the Bar? As a 1L, the goal is to become a 2L. Thus, 1Ls need to focus on learning the law school process and acquiring the tools needed to become a successful law student. The California Bar Exam should not be important to a 1L. If a 2L is enrolled in a four-year program, then I would recommend the same advice for that 2L. It is important for a 2L to work even harder than during his or her first year of law school. Second-year subjects are more voluminous and conceptually more difficult. Also, the competition is tougher in the second year. 2L students need to fine-tune their test-taking skills, including honing their essaywriting and multiple-choice exam preparation. However, if a 2L is enrolled in a three-year program, then I would recommend that the 2L start reviewing the subjects and topics covered on the California Bar Exam to gain a better understanding of the three-day test. Familiarity breeds confidence.

M AG A Z I N E // fall ��

What is your best advice for a 3L who will take the Bar within a year? Again, it depends. If a 3L is enrolled in a four-year program, then I would recommend the same advice as above. 3L students need to continue improving their exam-taking skills, including honing their essay-writing and multiple-choice exam preparation. However, if a 3L is enrolled in a three-year program, then I would recommend the 3L use his or her last year of law school to prepare for the California Bar Exam. It is important that 3Ls take all state Bar-tested subjects by the time they complete their last year. Moreover, they should review the state Bar-tested subjects and topics covered on the Bar exam, and practice taking essays from past California Bar Exams posted on the state Bar web site. What is the relationship between law school and Bar preparation? How is Bar prep different than law school and why is it so important? Law school requires more than just the simple task of memorizing the legal rules that shape our society. If law school merely required the ability to memorize rules of law, any college freshman could do it. Law students – particularly those in their first year – must understand that the real challenge of law school is developing the ability to apply those legal rules to factual situations where the elements of the rules are at issue. The ability to analyze is the pure essence of legal training. It is often referred to as “the ability to think like a lawyer.” Sound legal analysis is the professional skill that must be developed and nurtured from the first day of law school. Those who devote the majority of their study time to memorizing rules but spend

little time acquiring the skill of analysis do not fully understand the process of law school. The Bar exam tests a candidate’s ability to perform fundamental lawyering skills as they relate to the candidate’s legal knowledge combined with the ability to apply that knowledge to particular testing formats. The goal of the Bar exam is to ensure that each candidate who is seeking to practice law is minimally competent to perform the routine tasks necessary to assume the professional responsibility for handling legal matters. These fundamental requirements demand that each candidate not only has a minimum command of the various legal subjects tested in the jurisdiction in which the candidate will take the Bar exam, but, equally as important, that each candidate demonstrates competency via a measurable ability to understand the legal subject matter presented in testing formats such as essays, multiple-choice questions, and the performance test portions. Does the California Bar Exam test more than a knowledge of the law? Learning the black letter law is very important. Without a basic understanding of the 15 subjects tested on the California Bar Exam, it would be impossible to pass the test. However, the black letter law simply lays down the foundation. In addition, the Bar exam tests one’s ability to handle stress over a three-day period, manage time properly, implement strategy, and improvise where necessary. The California Bar Exam is a skills exam.

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