From the Courtroom to the Kingdom: A Mission to Share the Sacred Call of Advocacy

Randy Singer’s life and career have long been marked by a clear calling of advocacy. But when he received life-changing news in the summer of 2025, Randy realized that — although it would unfold in a way he did not expect — the Lord’s work through him was only just beginning.

Multiple Avenues Lead to One Purpose

In 1986, after graduating second in his class at William & Mary Law School, Randy began his notable career in law. He started at a 60-person law firm in Norfolk, Virginia, where he served for 13 years before serving as an executive on a national mission board and CEO of a cable television network.

In 2007, he accepted an invitation from the founding elders of Trinity Church to serve as Teaching Pastor, which, according to him, is proof that “God can use anybody to do anything.” Just two years later, Randy founded his own law firm, the Singer Legal Group, now Singer Hoffman. Throughout his decades of success as a trial lawyer, he has served as lead counsel on numerous high-profile cases. As both a pastor and a lawyer, he has seen the evidence of a world desperately in need of advocacy. 

“I’m an advocate when I preach. I’m an advocate when I represent my clients. And I’ve always seen advocacy as the highest calling,” Randy says. “We’re told that Christ is our advocate, and he advocates for us before the Father — and we’re supposed to be like Christ. So when we advocate for someone else, we are meeting their deepest needs, and we earn credibility with them. We can impact lives, we can expand the kingdom, we can do so many things through advocacy.”

Randy has accomplished many of those things, indeed. In addition to litigation and ministry, the theme of advocacy also extended to Randy’s work as an author of 16 books. He pursued writing with the goal of conveying biblical truths in his stories, and published his most widely acclaimed novel, The Advocate, in 2014. A historical fiction novel inspired by the lives of Christ and the Apostle Paul, the book was awarded the Best Christian Novel in 2015 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. 

That’s not all. Randy has also shared his gift through education, serving in multiple roles at Regent University over the past 30 years, including Adjunct Professor, Senior Lecturing Fellow, and Director of the Singer Civil Litigation Practicum in the School of Law, as well as Chairman of the Board of Visitors and Attorney in Residence for the university.

In every position he’s held, Randy knows his true purpose was to advocate for those in need and rightly represent the gospel. “I think when we walk through life, God wants us to focus on the moment we’re in, but He also uses every moment we’re in to prepare us for something else,” he said. “When I look back on 40 years of my profession, the common thread that I see is this thread of advocacy. And advocacy is not just a skill, it’s a calling. It’s an anointing.”

Seeing the Opportunity in Suffering

Randy may not have originally chosen what the Lord was preparing him for next. In July of 2025, he was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer — a diagnosis with an average life expectancy of eight to 12 months. In the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation, he recalls the moment the Lord revealed that he was going to do something great through Randy, even in his illness.

“The week I was diagnosed, I was preaching on the conversion of the Apostle Paul,” Randy recalls. “God told Paul through this man, Ananias, ‘You’re my chosen vessel to bear my name to the Gentiles, their kings, and the children of Israel. I’ll show you how much you must suffer for my namesake.’ As soon as I saw those verses and I knew I was getting these tests that week, I said, ‘Oh no, this is going to be a tough diagnosis.’”

“I’ve got somewhat the same calling as the Apostle Paul did, and we all do — to be an advocate for the gospel of Christ,” Randy says. “As I considered the chemotherapy I’ll have to go through and the journey I was going to walk with this cancer diagnosis, I realized that it’s not about me. God is allowing me to go through this for people that I wouldn’t have been able to minister to otherwise, to increase my faith, and draw me closer to God and to have an impact.”

A Dream to Equip Future World Changers

During his years serving as a lawyer, pastor, author, and professor, Randy had an ambition in his heart to create something that would be a training ground for those who, like him, had a call on their lives to be advocates. Then, in light of his recent diagnosis, rather than allowing it to overwhelm him in sadness and fear, he went to the Lord and considered how to put his dream into action.

“When you come face to face with your own mortality, you say to yourself, ‘What really matters? Where can I have the biggest impact?’” Randy says. “I realized that I’m one person. If I can train other advocates to do things beyond what I’ve ever done, then the impact can be so enormous for the kingdom of God. When my diagnosis hit, I wrote down seven things that I wanted to do before leaving planet Earth. And one of those was to start the Center for Advocacy.”

Announced by Regent University in December 2025 with an anticipated fall 2026 opening, the Singer Center for Advocacy at Regent Law is an initiative designed to serve as a hub for cultivating the next generation of advocates. The center seeks to equip exceptional attorneys who will defend the vulnerable and change the world through a principled pursuit of justice. Through expert mentoring, advanced courses in trial and appellate practice, and experience in real cases that also serve as academic credit, students will have a unique opportunity to cultivate practical skills essential to legal education.

Early in the planning stages, Randy shared his vision with former prosecutor and Judge Pamela Hutchens, who teaches trial practice and coaches trial teams with Randy at Regent. Having devoted over 30 years of her life to public service, Judge Hutchens agreed to help Randy launch and lead the center. In the weeks following, Randy also collaborated with Professor Mike Hernandez, a Regent Law faculty member since 1992. Together, the three leaders envision the Center to be a place where advocates will thrive and reach their full potential to serve others. 

A Powerful Ripple Effect

“I want our students to be great advocates because it’s a calling, and I want to fulfill the calling of our students who think that they can be advocates,” Randy says. “But advocacy also ripples out to their clients. And then, when their clients’ lives are changed because of advocacy, it ripples out to the people that their clients represent. So, I see this as throwing a pebble into the pond. The ripple effects of advocacy go on and on.”

With a newfound hope in God’s plan, Randy is confident in how the Lord will continue to use him to teach others about the power of being an advocate. And although he sees it as proof that “God has a healthy sense of humor,” his time as a writing, teaching, and “preaching lawyer” is also proof that God can use just one person to advance His kingdom in far-reaching ways — some that simply start with a dream.