Stephon J. Bowens

Stephon J. Bowens is a civil rights attorney and partner of Wallis, Bowens, Averhart & Associates, PLLC. He is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Bowens is a contributor to and editor of the seventh edition of Ten Ways To Save Your Land, a book designed to assist laypersons with the protection of their greatest asset, their land. He is also an editor and contributor to The Good North Carolina Elementary School, a book that examined best practices in public schools and offered recommendations for the improvement of North Carolina’s public schools and the author of A Parent’s Guide to Public School Discipline, a handbook for parents regarding their right to participate in the education and disciplinary proceedings of their children in the public schools.

Mr. Bowens began his legal career as a public benefits attorney with East Central Community Legal Services in Smithfield, North Carolina. He was also previously employed by Blanchard, Miller, Lewis, and Styers, P.A., for four years, where his primary responsibility included serving as Associate General Counsel for Land Use and Zoning for AT&T Wireless. Prior to that he served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers' Land Loss Prevention Project for eight years, where he managed twelve attorneys addressing predatory lending practices and improper foreclosure proceedings.  He also served as the Co-Executive Director of the North Carolina Education and Law Project, a division of the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center, for two years, where he lobbied the North Carolina General Assembly and lead impact litigation on behalf of limited resource and financially distressed public school students. Mr. Bowens is also a former member of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Law Section Council of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Mr. Bowens is a 1996-1997 Education Policy Leadership Fellow and is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of North Carolina and the federal courts of Washington, D.C. He has appeared and argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  He is a class of '94 graduate of North Carolina Central School of Law, and completed his undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University in 1990.