Wanda E. Flowers rose from chief counsel to general attorney for labor, EEO and employment at Sunoco. She now reports directly to the senior vice president and general counsel, manages the company’s compliance with federal, state, and local employment and labor laws, and supervises Sunoco’s labor arbitration and employment litigation.
Ironically, Flowers joined Sunoco after 17 years of ser- vice as an attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Philadelphia. “It took a great deal of courage for me to [leave the government] since I had branded corporate America as the enemy,” says Flowers. “At the EEOC, I was responsible for prosecuting cases against corporations.” Now though, “I am in a position where I can have an impact on the treatment of employees from within the corporation.”
Flowers’ impact is broadened through her civic activities. She co-chairs the Minority In-House Counsel Program of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. She is also an appointee to the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, and is the former President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Women Lawyers Division of the NBA.
Flowers, who earned her J.D. from the University of California, advises women to “fear nothing. The most successful people have been willing to take risks and will seize every opportunity that is presented to them,” says Flowers.
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From the March/April 2003 issue of Diversity & The Bar®