Graduate combines studies in music, law for career head start in Nashville’s music scene

Graduate Layla England wanted to attend Liberty University years before she enrolled. She knew the school was equipped to educate and prepare her for her dream job as a contract and copyright lawyer in the music industry.

“I’ve always had a passion for music, a passion for law, and a passion for people,” she said. “I have a knack for business, and I love to communicate with people, and I love to help people.”

She got to live out that passion early when she traveled to Nashville last summer for her internship. She served as an assistant to Dove Award-winning Contemporary Christian recording artist Tasha Layton.

“I was her right hand the entire summer and just did everything,” England said, explaining that the job afforded her the privilege of attending the K-LOVE Fan Awards while she also sat in on countless music business meetings among other tasks.

She said the internship was an example of why she chose to attend Liberty. It was Layton who reached out to the School of Music seeking a summer intern, and England was recommended for the role.

“I spent an entire summer in Nashville, in the heart of Music City,” she said. “I was in a recording studio, I was in a management office, I was sitting in on meetings, I got to read over contracts. It was ‘Here’s a taste of what you want.’ It was just incredible.”

England will be attending Liberty’s School of Law beginning this fall before returning to Nashville to pursue a career in helping recording artists publish and protect their work.

“There’s a lot of different ways I can go in the music business,” she said. “Ideally, I would love to work with artists, whether that means I work for a record label and I draw up their contracts, I work with a management team and I draw up artists’ contracts, or I work with individual artists and represent them in things like copyright law.”

She said Liberty not only prepared her for a career, but for success in life.

“I love the School of Music with my whole heart,” she said. “It’s truly amazing. The professors know your name and care about you, which is mind-blowing to me. They not only care about your development as a musician, but they care about you spiritually and emotionally.”

England said she has also grown spiritually through her work as a Resident Assistant (RA).

“It’s such a ministry opportunity,” she said. “I have learned that being a leader just means you are the first servant. It doesn’t mean anything special. It doesn’t mean that you are better than them or are above them or anything like that. It means that when somebody is in a crisis and their world is falling apart, you are the first person on call, and you are expected to drop everything and go be that to that person and to point them to Christ.”

She said she’s proud to join over 250,000 alumni who have been trained as Champions for Christ. It’s a title she will bear proudly.

“Being a Champion for Christ means whatever you do, you do it for the glory of the Lord,” she said. “Your life is not your own, your time is not your own, your experiences are not your own. They are all for Him and everything is for His glory. That’s what we were created for as human beings and that is what it means to me. Doing your best because He is deserving of it.”

England is one of over 28,000 graduates in the Class of 2023.