By Paul Janczewski
Legal News
Several months ago, Flint lawyer Rhonda Stowers was named the Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the Legal Services of Eastern Michigan. Her journey as a successful attorney who has carved out a career at the Flint office of Plunkett Cooney while giving free legal services to those less fortunate began years ago while she was an eighth-grader in elementary school.
Stowers had always dreamed big, even as a child. Some of the professions she wanted to enter at that tender age included becoming an astronaut, or a police detective, or an archeologist.
But then, an eighth grade English teacher asked her students to watch the television show “Beauty and the Beast.” For Stowers, it was life changing.
“A lot of people have this really grandiose reason why they got into law,” Stowers, 38, said. “Either they come from generations of lawyers, or witnessed someone being harassed, or they witnessed some hideous court case.”
With her, it was from watching a television show.
“I’m looking at the lead character, and I liked her clothes, her hair, her apartment,” she said.
It turns out the character was a lawyer. Stowers made up her mind then and there to become an attorney.
“It seemed like a good life,” she said. “And that’s my embarrassing story why I went to law in the first place. And I’ve never regretted it.”
When her mother found out, she also thought it was a good career choice, but really no surprise, telling her daughter she likely be a good lawyer “because she liked to argue.”
After graduating from Bentley High School in 1993, Stowers went to the University of Michigan-Flint, earning a bachelor of science degree in clinical/community psychology in the honors program in 1998.
After graduating from U of M Law School in 2001, Stowers was interested in family law or being a prosecutor. But that was shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which “shook the job market,” Stowers said, and she faced “an uphill battle” looking for a job. She interviewed with a number of places before coming upon a job opening with Plunkett Cooney six months later.
It provides the best of both worlds, she said, by offering a big firm in a small office setting. Stowers practice includes general litigation, governmental law and title insurance law. She has defended numerous premises liability, employment, product liability and general litigation cases on behalf of churches, employers, landlords, manufacturers and retailers, and advised and defended many municipalities on topics such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, federal and state constitutions, civil rights, zoning, charter amendments, ordinance drafting, and employment-related issues.
As for her pro bono work, Stowers said it is important and needs to be done to give back to the community.
“I don’t see myself as doing anything special or extraordinary compared to what should be done by every attorney,“ she said. “I had a lot of mentors and people guiding me through different processes when I was growing up.”
And Plunkett Cooney encourages pro bono work and community involvement. As part of the firm’s 100th year anniversary, it has launched “100 acts of kindness” to help enrich the community.
The Legal Services of Eastern Michigan, founded in 1951, is a nonprofit organization that offers free civil legal help to low-income people.
The award was bestowed on Stowers last May at the Genesee County Bar Association’s (GCBA) annual meeting by Jill Nylander, LSEM’s director of litigation and training, who cited Stowers’ dedication to providing volunteer service in its monthly legal advice clinic, counseling clients on their legal situations, options and future “and the power to take control.”
Each month, Stowers worked three to four hours with clients on a number of issues. Nylander said LSEM serves 14 counties in Michigan and has been handing out the award for years. She said Stowers has been “very loyal” in offering her services.
“In Ms. Stowers case, she has gone above and beyond the typical expectation and actually continued to serve some of the clients beyond that initial advice,” Nylander said.
“We really appreciate individuals like her who take time out of their already busy schedules to volunteer and help our clients,” Nylander said. “There’s obviously more demand for our service than we have the resources to meet, and the folks from the GCBA are very good about trying to help supplement in our efforts to assist the lowest people in the community, and Ms. Stowers was a fine example of that.”
Henry Cooney, Plunkett Cooney’s president and CEO, praised Stowers for taking to heart the pro bono duty of all attorneys “to give back some of their time and talents to their communities” and said she “has truly made a difference for residents” in Flint.
Stowers has won other awards, but said, “this is definitely at the top.”
And her pro bono work fills a niche and a void “that gives me a wider variety of experiences than I would get just through my job here,” she said.
Away from work, Stowers and husband Matthew, a stay-at-home dad and her high school sweetheart, raise three boys, ages 9, 7 and 4. She likes to read, especially on her Kindle.
“I am very richly blessed,” she said. “A lot of where I’m at is due to hard work, but a lot is also due to divine intervention.”
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