Mat Staver
Founder & Chairman of Liberty Counsel
Mat Staver serves as Senior Pastor, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel; Chairman of Liberty Counsel Action, Faith and Liberty, Freedom Federation, and Salt & Light Council; Founder and Chairman of Liberty Relief International; Vice President and Chief Counsel of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (which includes over 42,000 Evangelical Hispanic churches); former Vice President of Liberty University; former dean and tenured professor of law at Liberty University School of Law; Trustee of Timothy Plan, a New York and Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange-traded family of mutual funds; former Trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society; Member of the Board of Reference of the Christian Film and Television Commission; Member of the Board of Advisors of Care for Pastors; Founder and former President of Staver & Associates; and Founder and former President of The Staver Group.
Mat has over 300 published legal opinions. He authored eight scholarly law review publications, many booklets and brochures, hundreds of articles and numerous books, including Why Israel Matters, Faith & Freedom: A Complete Handbook for Defending Your Religious Rights, Same-Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk, and Eternal Vigilance: Knowing and Protecting Your Religious Freedom.
Mat is the host and producer of Faith and Freedom podcast/radio program and Freedom’s Call radio program. He also produces a Bible study podcast. He is a frequent guest on many international and national network and cable television and radio programs, and has been interviewed for thousands of print and electronic media sources. Mat also co-hosts Liberty Counsel’s weekly television program, Freedom Alive®.
Mat has filed numerous briefs and argued in many federal and state courts, including three landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: Shurtleff v. City of Boston, Madsen v. Women’s Health Center and McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky.
Prior to law school, Mat pastored several churches. He reads Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Syriac. He graduated first in his seminary class and wrote the longest Master’s thesis in the history of the school at that time, entitled: Quest for the Historical Jesus: An Inquiry into the Historicity of the Passion Predictions. Using historical research methods, he defended the historicity of the passion statements of Jesus. While in seminary, he was invited to present his research to biblical scholars from around the world at an American Society of Oriental Research annual conference. Mat continues to preach, baptize, and perform other sacerdotal functions.
Mat has the highest AV rating given to attorneys by Martindale-Hubble. He is licensed as an attorney in Florida and the District of Columbia, and is board certified in Appellate Practice by the Florida Bar.
Mat has a B.A., Theology, cum laude, Southern Missionary College; M.A., Religion, summa cum laude, Andrews University; J.D., University of Kentucky; LL.D., honoris causa, Liberty University; D.D., honoris causa, South Florida Bible College.
