After completing his studies in religion and becoming a pastor, Dean Staver entered law school and the legal profession. Following law school, he worked in private practice with the law firm of Zimmerman, Shuffield, Kiser and Sutcliffe in Orlando, Florida. In 1989, Dean Staver became the Founder and President of Staver & Associates, a statewide law firm with offices in Orlando and Tallahassee, Florida. He also was the Founder and President of The Staver Group, a statewide governmental consulting organization. A few of his many clients included the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team, the University of Florida, Marriott Corporation, Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Taco Bell, Denny’s Restaurants, AIG Insurance, The Florida Medical Association, The Florida Nursing Association, and Florida Hospital. In 1989, Dean Staver became the Founder, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel and currently serves as Chairman of the Board. Liberty Counsel is a litigation, education and policy organization with offices in Orlando, Florida, Lynchburg, Virginia, and hundreds of affiliate attorneys in all 50 states. Liberty Counsel was one of the first religious liberty litigation organizations in the country. In the early 1990s, Dean Staver was one of the first to pioneer a new legal strategy and theory in litigating religious liberty cases, using the First Amendment Free Speech Clause. As the Founder of Liberty Counsel, Dean Staver has been extensively involved in media. On average he conducted over 1,300 media interviews each year, resulting in several thousand print articles, radio broadcasts and TV programs. He has appeared on every TV and cable news network, on almost every network news program, and has conducted media interviews for many international media outlets. Dean Staver has produced and hosted hundreds of media programs for Liberty Counsel’s daily radio program Freedom’s Call, daily radio program Faith and Freedom, and weekly TV program Law & Justice. Dean Staver serves as Director of the Liberty Center for Law and Policy (LCLP), a partnership between Liberty Counsel and Liberty University School of Law. He also was involved in the founding and development of Liberty University School of Law long before its physical inception. A few of Dean Staver’s academic memberships and honors include Alpha Mu Gamma language honors; Moot Court Board, 1985-87; Captain, National Moot Court Team, 1986-87; Region IV National Moot Court Competition Championship Team, 1987; and The Order of Barristers. He was a recipient of Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities, 1980 (selected by classmates and faculty). Dean Staver has authored over ten books, including Eternal Vigilance: Knowing and Protecting Your Religious Freedom; Same-Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk; Faith and Freedom: A Complete Handbook for Defending Your Religious Rights; Take Back America; Religion and the Future of America; Religious Expression in Public Schools; Judicial Tyranny; Political Activity of Nonprofit Organizations; and Union Membership and its Constitutional Implications. Dean Staver has more than 120 published legal opinions, has written several hundred articles on religious freedom and constitutional law, and has published six law review and journal articles. Dean Staver is an AV-rated attorney and is Board Certified in Appellate Practice. At one time, he was one of only two attorneys double Board Certified in Workers’ Compensation and Appellate Practice in the state of Florida. In addition to writing numerous briefs before the United States Supreme Court, he has argued twice before the High Court. As one of the leading constitutional litigators in the country, he is admitted to every federal court of appeals in the country and has personally argued before most of them. He has conducted many CLE and CEU courses certified by state bar associations or government agencies. Dean Staver reads Classical Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Koine Greek, and is the author of Quest for the Historical Jesus: An Inquiry Into the Historicity of the Passion Predictions. He is married to Anita L. Staver, who is also an attorney and serves as President of Liberty Counsel.
Articles
Liberty University's Lawyering Skills Program: Integrating Legal Theory in a Practice-Oriented Curriculum, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2008)
Law schools are not preparing lawyers for the practice of law. While modern legal education...
Lifting the Veil: An Expose on the American Bar Association's Arbitrary and Capricious Accreditation Process (with Anita L. Staver), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2003)
To understand the flaws of the ABA accreditation process, this article will overview the experience...
Disestablishmentarianism Collides with the FIrst Amendment: The Ghost of Thomas Jefferson Still Haunts Churches (with Anita L. Staver), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2002)
This history of church-state relations in the Commonwealth of Virginia date back to Thomas Jefferson...
Collateral Offsets to Workers’ Compensation Benefits, Florida Bar Journal (1998)
An employee who is injured in the course and scope of employment may be entitled...
Balancing Federal Court Intervention with State Sovereignty, Oklahoma City University Law Review (1997)
Mathew D. Staver writes about the Abstention Doctrine. The Article provides an analysis of the...
Unpublished Papers
Transsexualism and the Binary Divide: Determining Sex Using Objective Criteria, ExpressO (2006)
This article deals with the legal status of postoperative transsexuals in terms of marriage and...