Steven T. Collis

Steven T. Collis researches and teaches on religion and law and other First Amendment topics. He is the founding faculty director of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center and of Texas's Law & Religion Clinic. Prior to joining Texas, Steven was a Research Fellow in the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School. Earlier in his career, he was an equity partner at Holland & Hart LLP, where he chaired the firm’s nationwide religious institutions and First Amendment practice group and was a member of the firm's complex civil litigation and employment practice groups. On the topic of religious freedom law, he is a sought-after speaker to academic and lay audiences across the United States, including foreign diplomats from countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America on behalf of the United States State Department. His scholarly work has been cited by justices of the Supreme Court and has appeared in The Michigan Law Review, The Nebraska Law Review, The University of Denver Law Review Online, and in his book Deep Conviction, which brings to life the history of free exercise law in the United States for lay audiences. He is also the author of the nonfiction book The Immortals and the historical novel Praying with the Enemy, which the American Library Association hailed as "establishing [Collis] as a literary force in historical fiction."