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Robertson Hall, which houses Regent law school in Virginia VA.

Regent Law Hires Two New Faculty Members—Both Yale Law Graduates—for Fall 2022

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (July 5, 2022) – Today, Regent University School of Law announced the appointment of two new members of its faculty, Erin Morrow Hawley and David D. Velloney.  Both Hawley and Velloney are graduates of Yale Law School. 

Professor Hawley will teach constitutional law and serve as a senior fellow at the Robertson Center for Constitutional Law.  Professor Velloney will focus on criminal law, military law, and constitutional criminal procedure.   Professors Hawley and Velloney are the third and fourth professors added to the Regent Law faculty in the past year. 

“We are incredibly fortunate to attract such exceptional teachers, mentors, and scholars to our faculty,” said Brad Lingo, dean of Regent University School of Law.  “Our students will love learning from professors Hawley and Velloney and benefit from the depth of experience and Christian perspectives they bring.”

New Faculty Appointments:

Erin Morrow Hawley: Associate Professor of Constitutional Law

  • J.D., Yale Law School
  • Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Fourth Circuit.
  • Counsel to Attorney General Michael Mukasey at U.S. Department of Justice
  • Associate professor of law at the University of Missouri
  • Taught constitutional law as a senior fellow at the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy
  • Extensive experience litigating matters at U.S. Supreme Court, including as counsel to Mississippi in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
  • Frequent commentator on legal issues in broadcast and print; with features in World Magazine, USA Today, Fox News, the Washington Examiner, the Legal Times, and the Hill, among others.
  • Author of Living Beloved: Lessons from My Little Ones About the Heart of God, published by Focus of the Family, 2018. 

David D. Velloney: Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law, Constitutional Criminal Procedure, and Military Law

  • B.S., United States Military Academy at West Point
  • J.D., Yale Law School
  • LL.M., The Judge Advocate General’s School
  • First joined Regent Law faculty in 2008.  Named Professor of the Year multiple times before leaving to serve as Executive Pastor at River Oak Church in Chesapeake, Virginia.  River Oak averages over 3,000 people in weekly attendance and was listed by Outreach Magazine as one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America in 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
  • Served 20 years of active duty in the U.S. Army, serving initially as Field Artillery Officer and retiring in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
  • Primary areas of expertise include Criminal Law, Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Military Law, and Trial Practice

About Regent Law

Regent Law’s more than 3,300 graduates practice law in 49 states and over 20 countries and include 38 currently sitting judges.  The School of Law is currently ranked 22nd in the nation for obtaining judicial clerkships and ranked 20th in the nation for Ultimate Bar Passage in 2019.  The school offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) in three-year and part-time formats, an online M.A. in Law, an online M.A. in Financial Planning & Law, an on-campus and online LL.M. in Human Rights, and an on-campus and online LL.M. in American Legal Studies.

About Regent University

Founded in 1977, Regent University is America’s premier Christian university with more than 11,000 students studying on its 70-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online around the world.  The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 areas of study including business, communication and the arts, counseling, cybersecurity, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing, healthcare, and psychology.  Regent University, ranked among top national universities (U.S. News & World Report, 2020), is one of only 23 universities nationally to receive an “A” rating for its comprehensive liberal arts core curriculum.

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