Symposium 2014: The Student Executive Committee

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies is pleased to announce the members of the Student Executive Committee for the Twentieth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium. The success of the Symposium each year is due in large part to the planning and performance of these outstanding students from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, under the direction of Associate Director Elizabeth Clark, Center Coordinator Deborah Wright, and Center Senior Editor Donlu Thayer.

The committee members are divided into five teams: Chase Thomas, Chair, with the help of Aline Longstaff, coordinate and oversee the Master Schedule of all Symposium events, including delegate schedules. Co-chairs of the Recruitment Team, Rachel Bennion, and Shantel Talbot, with the assistance of Monica Gardner, Eva Brady, and Jedediah Knight, recruit, organize, and supervise dozens of student volunteers from the law school and across BYU campus, as well as…

Gayla Sorenson

Formerly, Volunteer Network Coordinator

For five years, from summer 2009 and until her appointment as Assistant Dean of Admissions at BYU Law School in 2014, Gayla Sorenson served the Center as Senior Fellow and Volunteer Network Coordinator, which included the design, recruitment, and coordination of a volunteer network to identify and address freedom of religion issues on a country-by-country basis and website content development. Gayla came to her work for the Center following a distinguished 20-year legal career at Motorola. Her career included managing domestic and international litigation matters, negotiating global contracts, joint ventures…

The Center Thanks the Student Research Fellows for 2014

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies expresses its gratitude for the dedication and excellent work of the Student Research Fellows for 2014. The fellows program brings the students into the worldwide work of the Center, as they complete internships with the offices of the legal counsels of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City and in many other parts of the world, participate in Center research, writing, and publishing projects, and help to maintain the Center’s ever-increasing international web presence. Among this year’s outstanding group of 16 students are speakers of Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, who spent their summer interships in these places…

The Center Thanks Gayla Sorenson

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies congratulates Gayla Sorenson on her appointment, effective September 2014, as Assistant Dean of Admissions at BYU Law School and expresses profound gratitude for Gayla’s five years of devoted volunteer service for the Center. Gayla designed, recruited, and coordinated an international network of volunteer legal professionals to support and assist in the Center’s global outreach, as they worked to identify and address freedom of religion issues on a country-by-country basis.

Gayla came to the Center following a distinguished 20-year legal career at Motorola. Her career included managing domestic…

Professor Brett Scharffs Appointed JRCLS Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum

J. Reuben Clark Law School Dean James R. Rasband has announced the appointment of Brett G. Scharffs as Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum, beginning Fall Semester 2014. Dean Scharffs, who is Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law, had been serving as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. He joined the BYU Law School in 1997. He has been the Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies for the past four years. His scholarly interests include comparative law and religion, philosophy of law, and international business law.

Professor Scharffs is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he received a B.S.B.A in international business and an M.A. in philosophy. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where…

Scharffs’ “Our Fractured Attitude Towards Corporate Conscience” #1 on SSRN

Note 25 June 2014: Dean Brett Scharffs’ paper Our Fractured Attitude Towards Corporate Conscience, is #1 on the download list of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Human Rights & the Corporation eJournal for the period 26 April 2014 to 13 August 2014. Click here to view the list.  Click here to download this important and timely paper. 

Brett G. Scharffs, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law, and Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, presented the paper “Our Fractured Attitude Towards Corporate Conscience” at the Wheatley Institution’s Religious Liberty Lecture Series …

Branden Kartchner, ICLRS Student Fellow

As an undergraduate student, Branden Kartchner committed himself to working with the International Center for Law and Religion. “I wanted to learn on an international level how government policy affects an individual’s right to believe on an international level,” Kartchner said. This opportunity began to take shape during his undergraduate studies as he took the class, “Government and Religion,” taught by David Kirkham with the International Center for Law and Religion.

“At that time, I committed to work for the Center if I were ever admitted to BYU Law School,” Kartchner said. “During my first semester of law school, I heard the Center offered international externships, and I wasted no time in applying. I visited Mexico City as a teenager and loved it. It was at the top of my list.” Kartchner is passionate about religious freedom and believes it is one of our most important…