A DBU Graduate's Call to Law

A native of McKinney, Texas, Stuart Foister's calling to the field of law began to develop before he ever set foot on University Hill. "I knew I wanted to go into finance, and I had a particular interest in the field of law, specifically with the intersection between law and business," says Stuart, who will be graduating this month from DBU with a B.B.A. in Finance and a minor in Accounting followed by law school at SMU in the fall.

During the summer of 2018, Stuart interned at a boutique law firm in Dallas with a focus area in commercial litigation. He proofread a lot of motions, scoured and indexed discovery documents, learned how to conduct case-law research, and generally grew in his understanding of the Texas civil procedure process by observing it unfold day to day. The following summer, he interned in the Capital Markets group at a large commercial real estate brokerage, providing support both to Debt and Structured Finance as well as M&A/Strategic Advisory and Investment Sales teams.

"Both of these summers were some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am beyond excited to be able to relive them over and over again for the rest of my career."

Desiring to soak in as much advice as possible from those further down the law school road, Stuart spent countless hours meeting with DBU alumni, including those from his fraternity Tau Alpha Phi, who had attended or were currently attending law school.

"These experiences, in addition to the counsel of our DBU faculty, also helped to guide me toward my ultimate decision to attend law school."

Stuart's calling to law was indeed confirmed and enhanced during his journey at DBU, especially through the integration of faith and learning, seeing "faith is as much a part of our vocation as it is a part of our personal lives. Instead of separating the sacred from the secular, we are taught to live out the sacred in the otherwise secular."

This contributed toward developing Stuart's perspective of seeing the field of law as His place of mission and service in God's Kingdom. "I am confident that the Lord will use me not only in the business and legal field but in His eternal pursuits for the hearts of mankind. Our jobs are our mission field, and we are most effectively serving our Creator when we are living out our faith in the vocation He has called us to."

Stuart plans to concentrate his legal studies at SMU Law School in the area of corporate bankruptcy and restructuring, putting his background in finance to work. He feels more prepared for this next step of faith out into the law world because of the leadership and advising of Dr. David Cook and other pre-law faculty at DBU.

"Choosing to attend DBU for the last four years has been among the most transformative decisions I have ever made," he reflects. "This school challenged me to grow and better myself academically as well as spiritually by integrating faith and learning in the classroom, starting with the outstanding example set by our faculty."

With his eyes set on law school and professional life beyond, Stuart's hope is that he can one day be a co-worker and friend to others in the field through his witness, especially to display before them that living for the Lord and working as unto Him is a higher calling than any of our worldly aspirations and fills our toils and labors with eternal meaning.