University of St. Thomas

Professor Nichols' Curriculum Vitae

J.D., with high honors, Emory Law School
M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University
B.A., summa cum laude, Abilene Christian University

Professor Nichols’s research, teaching, and public speaking centers upon the intersection of law and religion.  He has authored several articles and book chapters addressing theology and religion as they relate to constitutional law, human rights, family law, and legal history.  His articles have appeared in NYU Law Review, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Journal of Church and State, Pepperdine Law Review, Emory International Law Review, and Emory Law Journal, among others.  He is currently directing a project on the future of marriage and divorce jurisdiction in America.  That project involves convening more than a dozen leading scholars from the United States and Canada for two conferences and will result in a forthcoming anthology.  Professor Nichols is also collaborating with John Witte, Jr. (Emory Law School) on a book on religious liberty and the United States Constitution.

Professor Nichols is a graduate of Emory University’s Law and Religion Program, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow in Law and a participant in the M.Div. Honors Program.  At graduation, he was awarded Order of the Coif at the law school and the Award for Academic Excellence at the theology school.  He subsequently served as a law clerk for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Jacksonville, Florida.  After his clerkship, Professor Nichols joined the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) in Washington, D.C.  His practice included complex civil litigation in both state and federal courts, large-scale internal corporate investigations, and substantial work on a number of pro bono matters (including one habeas case in which a client’s murder conviction was overturned after almost thirty years).  He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the State Bar of Texas (inactive). 

Prior to joining the University of St. Thomas faculty in Fall 2007, Professor Nichols taught at Pepperdine Law School, where he was Assistant Professor from 2003-2006, and then Associate Professor and Rick J. Caruso Research Fellow in Law in 2006-2007.  Professor Nichols currently serves on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Family and Juvenile Law and on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Law and Religion.  He has also served as a reviewer for the Journal of Law and Religion and for Aspen Publishers.  Professor Nichols also currently coordinates the faculty colloquia series for the School of Law.

Professor Nichols is also heavily involved with Viva Network (North America)  www.usa.viva.org .  Viva is a Christian international human rights organization headquartered in Oxford, England, with regional centers in South America, India, Asia, and Africa.  Viva is passionately concerned about providing care to vulnerable children world-wide, and it aims to link Christian care-givers around the world to enable them to have greater impact and works to provide better resources and information for those organizations so that children may receive more and better care.  Professor Nichols serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors for North America, and also aids the International Center in Oxford through assisting in strategic planning. 

Professor Nichols has also served as the faculty advisor to student organizations, including International Justice Mission and the Pepperdine Law Review.  He will be teaching Contracts, Family Law, and Remedies this academic year.  He has also taught Religion and the Constitution, Law and Morality, and International Human Rights.

Representative Scholarship (available at http://ssrn.com/author=386894)

Courses Taught:

Contracts
Family Law
Remedies