Bill Rowe

Bill Rowe is Senior Advisor at the NC Justice Center and supports NC Justice Center advocacy staff to ensure a comprehensive coordinated effort on issues impacting North Carolinians. He works closely with the Workers’ Rights Project, Consumer, Housing & Energy Project, and the Fair Chance Criminal Justice Project.

Bill first came to North Carolina in 1979 as a VISTA organizer with the Carolina Brown Lung Association in Roanoke Rapids. After attending Northeastern University School of Law, Bill returned to NC in 1985 to work as a staff attorney with Legal Services of Southern Piedmont (LSSP) in Concord and subsequently with East Central Community Legal Services (ECCLS) in Raleigh. Bill represented low-income clients in a wide array of civil cases, including impact litigation, evictions and poor housing quality, employment, unemployment compensation, consumer rights, Social Security, public benefits, domestic violence, and community economic development. Bill came to the Justice Center’s predecessor organization, the N.C. Legal Services Resource Center in 1992 and has been with the NC Justice Center since its inception in 1996. He served as executive director of the NC Justice Center from 2001 to 2004 and interim executive director in early 2023.

Bill is a committed anti-poverty advocate with three decades of experience. He has served as counsel in class action lawsuits concerning consumer rights, education, public benefits, and housing law. In addition, Bill has represented members of the state’s low-income communities before the NC legislature, state and federal agencies, and local governments on issues related to housing, employment, civil rights, consumer rights, tax fairness, reentry, judicial procedures, access to the courts, and environmental justice.

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