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Regent University School of Law

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Last updated: October 5, 2026

Regent University School of Law

Regent University School of Law is a private, Christian law school in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that enrolled a first-year class of 127 students in Fall 2025 from 537 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 158 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.68. It is ranked #91 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and it posted a 97.06% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam and a No. 7 national ranking in judicial clerkships for the Class of 2025. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Regent pairs a mission-driven, explicitly Christian legal education and unusually strong clerkship, bar, and cost outcomes with a regionally concentrated placement footprint, at an estimated 2026–27 cost of attendance of approximately $68,950.

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Regent Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1986
Type Private (Christian; Regent University)
ABA approval or accreditation ABA approved (1996; AALS member)
Location Virginia Beach, Virginia
Latest U.S. News rank #91 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 537 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate 44.32% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median 158 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median 3.68 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class 127 (Fall 2025; 123 full-time, 4 part-time)
Current tuition ≈ $42,000 full-time / $33,654 part-time (U.S. News); $1,400 per credit hour (509 report)
Current estimated cost of attendance ≈ $68,950 (2026–27, full-time)
Latest first-time bar passage 97.06% (July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam — 2nd-highest in Virginia)
Latest bar-required employment 96% employed under the U.S. News full-time, long-term measure — No. 27 nationally (Class of 2025)
Current dean S. Ernie Walton (interim, 2025–present)

The admissions figures are drawn from Regent's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (537 completed applications, 238 offers, 44.32% acceptance rate, 127 in the first-year class as of October 2025). The school's own class-profile page reports 548 applications and an entering class of 112 with a median LSAT of 157 and median GPA of 3.68, but that page appears to describe an earlier entering class rather than Fall 2025; the small differences reflect different reporting dates and counting methods, and this profile uses the standardized 509 figures. Tuition and cost data are drawn from the school's tuition page, the university financial-aid office, and third-party analysis of the 2026–27 year. S. Ernie Walton, previously associate dean, has served as interim dean since 2025, following Bradley Lingo (2022–2025), Mark D. Martin (2019–2022), Michael V. Hernandez (2015–2019), and Jeffrey A. Brauch (2000–2015).

Introduction

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Regent University School of Law, founded in 1986 and ABA-accredited in 1996, is the law school of Regent University and one of a small group of American law schools that explicitly integrate a religious worldview into the curriculum, describing its mission as training "purpose-driven, practice-ready attorneys grounded in timeless legal principles." It is located on Regent's 100-acre campus at 1000 Regent University Drive in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. With a J.D. student body of 341 and a first-year class of 127, Regent Law is a deliberately small school.

Regent's identity rests on three pillars: an explicitly Evangelical Christian academic culture with unusually close faculty-student contact, a demonstrated record of placing graduates into judicial clerkships and government service, and a comparatively low tuition among private law schools, supported by one of the highest grant-recipient rates in the country. Its graduates cluster in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina, and individual alumni have reached major national firms, though the school is not a broad pipeline to large-market BigLaw.

Rankings and Reputation

Regent Law is ranked #91 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings and describes itself as the fastest-rising law school in the nation from 2021 to 2026, climbing 56 spots over five years (the school elsewhere states 2022–2026). Its reputation among clerkship and government employers is stronger than its overall rank position suggests: in ABA Class of 2025 employment data cited by the school, Regent placed No. 7 nationally in judicial clerkships, No. 26 in federal clerkships, and No. 27 in employment outcomes among ABA-approved schools.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Regent rank
2026 91 (tie) of 194
2025 94 (tie)

Prior-year ranks other than 2025 and 2026, and the school's "56 spots in five years" trajectory, were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed; the trajectory figure is school-reported. ILRG's 2026 rankings, built on December 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, place Regent at #94 nationally. Applicants should treat movement of a few places within the 80–100 band as immaterial to Regent's practical career outcomes, which are driven by bar and employment data rather than rank position.

Specialty rankings

  • Business/Corporate Law: #185 (tie) — 2026 U.S. News.
  • Human Rights Law: the school publicly claims a share of the No. 1 national rank; this does not appear in the 2026 U.S. News specialty data retrieved for this profile and is therefore not listed here as confirmed.
  • The Princeton Review (2025 Best Law Schools data) ties Regent at #2 in the nation for professor accessibility and #9 for teaching quality.
  • Outcome-based national ranks (Class of 2025, ABA data cited by the school): No. 7 judicial clerkships, No. 26 federal clerkships, No. 27 employment outcomes.
  • Bar passage standing: #39 nationally on the 2024 exam for first-time passage (school-reported); ILRG ranked Regent #57 in first-time bar passage (88.2%), a +10.6 point advantage over the state average. The school reports a 21st-national rank in ultimate bar passage in 2023.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025
Completed applications 537
Offers of admission 238
Acceptance rate 44.32%
Enrollees from applicant pool 127
Total in first-year class 127 (123 full-time, 4 part-time)
Yield (enrollees / offers) 53.4%

Transfers in for Fall 2025 numbered 3. The school's own class-profile page reports 548 applications, an entering class of 112, 73 undergraduate institutions, 31 states, a median age of 26, and 58% female enrollment, with 29% of students qualifying for the J.D. Honors Program; those figures appear to reflect an earlier entering class and are provided here only as context.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT 153 158 161
Undergraduate GPA 3.37 3.68 3.89

Regent also accepts the GRE in lieu of the LSAT (Standard 503 disclosure available in the school's ABA materials).

Interpreting the numbers

Regent's profile sits in the middle of the accredited-school distribution. A 158 median LSAT and 3.68 median GPA place the school below Virginia's public flagships (the University of Virginia and William & Mary) and the University of Richmond, and roughly comparable to Elon University School of Law and Liberty University School of Law. The 44.32% acceptance rate is comparatively generous among ABA-approved schools, reflecting a self-selecting applicant pool drawn heavily to the school's religious mission rather than a low selectivity standard alone. No LSAT or GPA guarantees admission.

Application timing

The application fee is $65, with a final application deadline of July 31 and a financial aid deadline of the same date. Admissions are rolling. No binding Early Decision program was identified in the sources reviewed; transfer applicants are admitted into the upper division.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Regent bills J.D. tuition on a per-credit model rather than a flat annual rate, which is why the ABA 509 report lists "annual" tuition as $0 alongside a per-credit figure.

Item Amount
Tuition per credit hour (resident and non-resident alike) $1,400
Estimated annual tuition, full-time (30 credits) ≈ $42,000
Mandatory annual fees $2,854
U.S. News reported tuition and fees, full-time $44,845
U.S. News reported tuition and fees, part-time $33,654

Per-semester program fees comprise an $80 general fee; a $430 bar-preparation fee payable for six semesters ($2,580 total, financed through student loans rather than as a lump payment near graduation); and $47 for returning students or $73 for first-year students each fall. The school states its annual tuition is nearly $20,000 lower than that of other private institutions.

Cost of attendance

Expense 2026–27 (estimated)
Tuition ≈ $42,000
Fees $2,854
Total estimated cost of attendance ≈ $68,950

The line-item breakdown (housing, food, books, personal expenses, transportation) was not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed; the ≈ $68,950 total is a third-party estimate implying an indirect cost allowance in the mid-$20,000s. Prospective students should confirm line items with the Office of Law Admissions and Financial Aid at (757) 352-4584.

Financial aid

Regent's grant coverage is among the highest in the country. Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 316 students — 97% of enrollees — received grants, with a median grant of $22,500, a 25th percentile of $10,000, and a 75th percentile of $35,000. With a median grant of $22,500 against roughly $44,845 in tuition and fees, the median aided student covers about half the sticker price through scholarship. Scholarships are non-conditional: the school does not reduce or eliminate awards based on law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing, and therefore does not complete the ABA conditional-scholarship retention chart. The Director of Financial Aid is Preston Braswell, (757) 352-4584, [email protected].

Debt perspective

Average indebtedness among 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt was $107,240, with 68.9% of graduates borrowing. Regent does not offer a loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) for 2025 J.D. graduates. An approximate three-year full-price cost (tuition and fees only, at the U.S. News rate) is about $134,535 before any scholarship, or roughly $67,000 after applying the median annual grant across three years. A school-reported median starting salary for private-practice placements was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed and is not reproduced here.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

The school reported record employment outcomes for the Class of 2025 in April 2026, based on newly released ABA data. 96% of graduates secured positions measured under the U.S. News full-time, long-term methodology, 25% of the class obtained judicial clerkships, and, among ABA-approved schools nationally, Regent ranked No. 7 in judicial clerkships, No. 26 in federal clerkships, and No. 27 in employment outcomes. Independently, NALP 2024 data cited on the school's employment page reports 97% of Regent Law graduates employed within 10 months of graduation.

Employment metric Class of 2025
Employment rate (U.S. News full-time, long-term) 96%
Judicial clerkship share 25% of the class
National rank, judicial clerkships No. 7 among ABA-approved schools
National rank, employment outcomes No. 27 among ABA-approved schools

The detailed ABA category table (bar-passage-required count, firm-size distribution, clerkship counts, school-funded positions, and unemployment figures) was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed and is therefore not reproduced here. Applicants should consult the official ABA Employment Summary and Regent's employment page for those line items.

What these numbers mean

The headline figures are unusually strong for a school of Regent's size and ranking position: a 96% full-time, long-term employment rate and a quarter of a graduating class in clerkships would be respectable several tiers higher. The composition matters, though. Class of 2024 placements were 44.34% private practice, 28.30% government, 15.09% judicial clerkships, 6.60% public interest, 3.77% business and industry, and 1.89% education — government and clerkships together exceeding 40% of the class, while private practice is concentrated in small and mid-sized firms rather than large law firms, with only one of the Class of 2024 private-practice placements reaching the 500+ attorney category. Regent's most visible large-firm placements are individual alumni rather than a broad pipeline.

Bar passage

Bar statistic Value
First-time, July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam 97.06% (2nd-highest among Virginia law schools)
First-time, 2025 (all jurisdictions, school-reported) 91%
First-time, 2024 administrations (all jurisdictions) 88.2% (ILRG), +10.6 points vs. the state average
Ultimate bar passage (2-year average, Class of 2023) 92% (school-reported)
Comparison: all July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam applicants 84.85% first-time; 79.54% overall (Virginia Board of Bar Examiners)

The different first-time figures reflect differing methodologies (single-state cohorts versus all-jurisdiction calculations versus U.S. News's composite). The most meaningful comparison is against the state rate for the same administration: on the July 2025 Virginia exam, Regent's first-time takers passed at 97.06% against an all-applicant first-time rate of 84.85%, well above the 89% average among Virginia law schools. The school attributes part of the record to an integrated bar-preparation program: 1L Property, Torts, Contracts, and Civil Procedure are taught at 5–6 credits each; up to five upper-level bar-preparation credits cover essay drafting, a simulated MBE, and the Multistate Performance Test; every professor serves as a bar-preparation mentor; and a partnership with Themis supplies outlines, lectures, and practice problems beginning in the first year.

Where graduates go

3,578 J.D. alumni work in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 20 nations, with the largest concentrations in Virginia (224), Texas (176), and North Carolina (147); more than 3,800 alumni are reported overall, including 38 currently serving judges. Selected placements include Andrew Butler (J.D. 2016), partner at Jones Day and former clerk for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware; Renee Knudsen (J.D. 2016), partner at BakerHostetler and former clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and Michael Pierce (J.D. 2015), partner at O'Hagan Meyer. Clerkship alumni include Rich Osborne (J.D. 2022), former clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Anna Edwards (J.D. 2022), clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Exact state-by-state counts for the Class of 2025 were not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is offered in three-year full-time and part-time formats. Regent's small size supports a tight-knit academic community with close faculty-student contact, and the curriculum is explicitly designed to integrate a Christian worldview with professional legal training.

Curriculum and special strengths

Beyond the J.D., the school offers an online M.A. in Law, an online M.A. in Financial Planning & Law, an LL.M. in Human Rights (on-campus and online), an LL.M. in American Legal Studies (on-campus and online), an LL.M. in Foundations of American Law, and an online B.A. in Law. Dual-degree options include J.D./M.A. programs in Organizational Leadership, Christian Ministry, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Communication, Government, Journalism, Marriage, Couple & Family Counseling, and School Counseling, along with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./Master of Divinity, and J.D./Master of Public Administration. U.S. News lists programs and courses of study in clinical training, dispute resolution, health care law, intellectual property law, trial advocacy, business/corporate law, constitutional law, and contracts/commercial law. The Center for Advocacy trains students in negotiation, trial advocacy, and alternative dispute resolution, and the school has historically emphasized moot court and advocacy competition success. Student scholarship is published in the Regent University Law Review and its online supplement, Pro Tempore.

Clinics and experiential learning

Experiential training runs principally through the Center for Advocacy's negotiation, trial advocacy, and ADR programming, together with clinical training coursework counted among the school's listed programs. Detailed clinic rosters, credit hours, and enrollment caps were not retrievable in machine-readable form from the pages reviewed; prospective students should request the current clinical course list from the school. The school's bar-preparation structure — expanded 1L doctrinal credits, up to five upper-level bar credits, faculty bar mentors, and a Themis partnership — functions as a required strand of the experiential curriculum.

Student Life and Location

Living in Virginia Beach

Regent Law sits on Regent University's 100-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of roughly 1.8 million residents. The region offers a lower cost of living than Washington, D.C. or Northern Virginia, a substantial federal presence (Norfolk Naval Station, Naval Air Station Oceana, Joint Base Langley–Eustis), beaches and a mild coastal climate, and a legal market centered on Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Hampton. Virginia Beach is roughly 3.5 hours from Washington, D.C. and about 1.5 hours from Richmond. The trade-off is reach: for students targeting the Hampton Roads or broader Virginia practice markets, Regent offers local proximity and the state's largest concentration of its own graduates, but placement outside Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina is thinner, and the campus is not located in a major national legal market.

Student body

With a first-year class of 127 and a total J.D. enrollment of 341, Regent is a small, mission-oriented community. The school's class-profile page (reflecting an earlier entering class) reports 58% female enrollment, an average age of 26, 73 undergraduate institutions represented, and 31 states represented; denominational and faith-background statistics were not published in the sources reviewed. Wikipedia lists total enrollment at 326, while the Fall 2025 ABA 509 report states 341 J.D. students; this profile uses the 509 figure. Students participate in moot court and trial advocacy competitions, the Regent University Law Review and Pro Tempore, and a range of faith-based and professional organizations. A part-time division exists, enrolling 4 students in the Fall 2025 first-year class.

How Regent Compares

Choose Regent if

  • You want a legal education explicitly grounded in an Evangelical Christian worldview, with faith integration and faculty mentorship built into required coursework.
  • Judicial clerkships are a target: a No. 7 national ranking in clerkships and 25% of the Class of 2025 in clerkship positions is the school's single strongest outcome statistic.
  • Cost sensitivity matters and you expect merit aid: a 97% grant-recipient rate with a $22,500 median award against roughly $44,845 in tuition and fees.
  • You intend to practice in Virginia — particularly Hampton Roads — or in Texas and North Carolina, where alumni concentrations are strongest.
  • You want a small class with strong professor accessibility and teaching-quality marks, or you need a part-time J.D. option.

Consider alternatives if

  • Your goal is large-firm practice in a major market (the University of Virginia, Georgetown University Law Center, or Duke University School of Law place far more graduates into large firms, and the University of Richmond or William & Mary offer broader Virginia reach).
  • You want a secular campus or are uncomfortable with a religious mission requirement.
  • You need national portability and a large alumni network outside the mid-Atlantic and South.
  • You require a loan repayment assistance program — Regent does not offer one.
  • You want a research-university setting or a broader interdisciplinary graduate ecosystem (George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School or Wake Forest University School of Law may suit you better).

The TLS Verdict

Regent University School of Law is the strongest performer among Virginia's faith-based law schools and one of the clearer value plays in its ranking band. Three facts drive that assessment: a 97.06% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam, 96% employment on the strict U.S. News full-time, long-term measure for the Class of 2025, and a No. 7 national rank in judicial clerkships. Add a 97% grant-recipient rate with a $22,500 median award against roughly $44,845 in tuition and fees, and the school presents a genuinely unusual cost-to-outcome ratio among private law schools.

The trade-offs are equally real. Regent's placement is regionally concentrated, with most private-practice graduates entering small and mid-sized firms; its alumni network is strongest in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina; average debt among borrowers exceeds $107,000 with no LRAP; and the school is not a pipeline to large-market BigLaw. Its position at #91 (tie) in U.S. News is honest about its national footprint.

Target applicant: a mission-aligned student who wants to practice in Virginia or the South, values a small and explicitly Christian academic community, and is willing to trade national reach for a strong bar-preparation culture and clerkship outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Regent Law?

Comparatively accessible but still competitive: for Fall 2025, Regent admitted 44.32% of applicants (238 offers from 537 completed applications). Most of that admissibility is a function of a self-selecting applicant pool drawn to the school's religious mission.

What LSAT score is competitive for Regent?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 158, with a middle-50% range of 153 to 161. Applicants at 153 were admitted and enrolled; applicants above 161 were in the top quarter of the class. No score guarantees admission given holistic review.

What GPA do Regent applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.68, with a middle-50% range of 3.37 to 3.89.

Does Regent give scholarships?

Yes, and at an unusually high rate. In the most recent reporting year, 316 students — 97% of enrollees — received grants, with a median grant of $22,500, a 25th percentile of $10,000, and a 75th percentile of $35,000. Scholarships are non-conditional; the school does not reduce or eliminate awards based on academic performance beyond the requirement to maintain good academic standing.

What is Regent's bar passage rate?

First-time takers passed the July 2025 Virginia Bar Exam at 97.06%, the second-highest rate in the Commonwealth and well above both the 89% average among Virginia law schools and the 84.85% first-time rate among all July 2025 Virginia applicants. The school's 2025 all-jurisdiction first-time rate was 91%, and its ultimate bar passage within two years was 92% for the Class of 2023.

Is Regent good for BigLaw?

Not in volume. Class of 2024 placements were 44.34% private practice, 28.30% government, 15.09% judicial clerkships, 6.60% public interest, 3.77% business and industry, and 1.89% education, with private-practice placements concentrated in smaller firms. Individual alumni have reached Jones Day, BakerHostetler, and O'Hagan Meyer.

Does Regent offer a part-time J.D.?

Yes. The part-time program enrolled 4 students in the Fall 2025 entering class, with a U.S. News-reported part-time tuition and fees figure of $33,654 and a $65 application fee. The school also offers online M.A. and LL.M. programs.

What is Regent Law best known for?

Its Christian mission and worldview integration, its integrated bar-exam preparation program, its judicial clerkship placement (No. 7 nationally for the Class of 2025), and its comparatively low tuition among private law schools — alongside a faculty recognized by The Princeton Review for teaching quality and professor accessibility.

Contact and Key Links

Regent University School of Law
1000 Regent University Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23464

Admissions Phone: (757) 352-4584

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

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