Jennifer Stogner ’06 wants to build community. So much so that in her Commencement welcome as president of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, she invited the December graduating class of 2022 to lunch with her. All of them, one on one, and she will pick up the check. “Just send me an email. We’ll go to lunch and discuss your career path,” she said.
Stogner is excited about her new position and the opportunities it brings to make a difference in the careers of attorneys – both recent graduates and established lawyers.
“Building community requires relationships,” she said. “It requires connections and conversations. Diversity and inclusion are necessary. The Benny Agosto, Jr. Diversity Center is a fantastic way to really bring us together and to listen to all the elements of our community. It also requires trust: knowing you can ask for help when you need it, and you will receive it. Community also means giving back through new relationships. If you had a great mentor, I hope you will consider paying it forward and being a good mentor to a young lawyer who is just like you used to be.”
Born in Galveston and raised in Corpus Christi, Stogner is a married mother of three. She always wanted to be a lawyer.
“I liked to argue, and often found myself standing up for what I thought was right, even as a child,” she said. Stogner worked as a legal assistant for her father, making $6 an hour for two years prior to law school. His gold standard is still her golden rule: “If it goes out with our family name on it, it had better be right. Otherwise, it tarnishes the reputation we worked so hard to build.” Forty-nine years after graduation, her father continues to practice law in Corpus Christi.
Stogner decided to attend STCL Houston because it was her father’s alma mater (Michael O’Brien ’74) and because, as a debate and theater veteran, she dreamed of joining the award-winning advocacy program under Associate Dean T. Gerald Treece. Also, one of the largest factors was a conversation with Assistant Dean of Admissions Alicia Cramer.
“I had toured other schools, but there was a synergy at South Texas,” Stogner said. “Dean Cramer really listened and answered all my questions. It just felt right.”
She met the man she would marry on the first day of orientation at STCL Houston — fellow student Brant Stogner ’06. “We were study partners, we started dating, and we won a national title in mock trial together,” she said. “I like to think it was meant to be.”
Building on their relationship and ties to the school, Dean Treece officiated their wedding ceremony. Indeed, two of their law school classmates, Ryan Haun ’06 and Rick Berlin ’06, are godfathers to their two sons.
Today, Stogner is Of Counsel with Abraham Watkins Nichols Agosto Aziz & Stogner, the oldest plaintiff’s personal injury firm in Texas, where she works with her husband and firm partner, Brant.
Celebrating the law school’s centennial year as the president of the Alumni Association board is particularly exciting for Stogner, who also is serving on the Centennial Steering Committee.
“I think about the original mission of South Texas: to provide a legal education to anyone,” Stogner said. “This school was founded during Prohibition, just after World War I ended, and a few years after women were given the right to vote. They created this co-ed law school for working people. It took a leap of faith based on the relationships of our founders. 100 years is an amazing milestone, but without relationships, without community, we never could have made it this far. It’s our job to continue that legacy – to foster faith in the practice of law and fellowship with one another.”
Stogner is working with other board members to create new opportunities for meaningful networking and mentorship that will bridge the gap between students and alumni.
“Being a young lawyer can be scary. Each one deserves a good mentor,” Stogner said. “Additionally, the energy that law students and recent graduates bring with them benefits established attorneys. They can see the spark in their eyes and sense their excitement and good energy. That ultimately benefits the firm who hires them and their clients, too. It’s win, win, win.”
Outside the office, Stogner enjoys watching her three children play basketball, soccer, baseball, or beating them in any board game or video game of their choice.
