The Heart Behind the Law

Fighting for equality in employment law

By Rebecca Laurenzana

Helping comes as second nature to Stephanie Jones (LAW ’01). You could say that it runs in her blood, literally. Growing up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Alcoa, Tennessee, she watched as her “granddaddy Griffin” enthusiastically volunteered on the board of the YMCA, which he did for sixty years of his life. On balmy southern nights, Jones could be found on the sidelines of the town’s ball diamond watching her other “Granddaddy Jones” voluntarily serve as umpire for the local baseball team.

Giving help where it’s needed

It was not the money or the prestige that attracted Jones to the law profession, but rather the ability to give a voice to those less fortunate. She considers herself lucky to have been raised in a two-parent home surrounded by supportive grandparents who led by example.

Jones’s parents, Jacqueline and Larry Jones, have been married for thirty-eight years. It wasn’t until she entered middle school that Jones noticed not everyone had two parents. She also began to notice her parents helping the children she went to school with—many of whom came from single-parent households. Looking back on the experience, Jones recalls asking her parents why they were being so helpful to these children. They simply told her that it is what you do when people need help. You help them.

“Being a lawyer fit my personality,” Jones says. “You need to want to solve people’s problems.” After law school, Jones worked for several large to mid-size firms. The experience she gained as a defense attorney in these firms proved to be a great learning tool for her to use in her current position as a trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission.

Finding her place

Once Jones was accepted as a trial attorney for the Commission she began to feel like she could really give those less fortunate a voice. “‘I felt like I finally got my dignity back,” a client once told her. He had been forced to do degrading work on his employer’s whim, such as getting down on his hands and knees to scrub the floor. That is no longer how he lives his life.

Just like in her early law school days doing pro bono work in the legal clinic at UT, Jones still gives freely of her time in her Charlotte, North Carolina, community. She does presentations at local colleges and universities on discrimination laws. The NAACP recently hosted a free legal clinic at which Jones presented. Duke University, where she completed her undergraduate work, still remains a part of her daily life as she interviews potential students and makes recommendations on their behalf.

Keith Lindsay, who hired Jones as an associate at Carter and Ansley in Atlanta, Georgia, says that Jones’s values set her apart from the pack. “She has chosen the path of helping others when many chose the one that leads to the best compensation,” Lindsay says. “I have great respect for her and am proud to count her among my friends.”