When Stephanie Hinz is sworn in as the 140th president of The Iowa State Bar Association (ISBA) on June 24, she will bring to the role a leadership philosophy rooted in connection, communication, service, and community.
For Hinz, the legal profession has never been solely about practicing law. It has always been about people.
"The Iowa State Bar Association serves everyone in the legal profession,” Hinz said. “'No Lawyer Left Behind’ isn’t just a slogan to me. The ISBA truly is the support system for lawyers throughout their careers and however they lawyer.”
That belief has become a defining theme of Hinz’s leadership within the ISBA and throughout Iowa’s legal community.
A partner at Pickens, Barnes & Abernathy in Cedar Rapids, Hinz has spent nearly three decades representing creditors and automotive finance companies in district court and bankruptcy court across Iowa. Her practice focuses heavily on creditors’ remedies, litigation, motion practice, and appellate work.
Her journalism background helped shape the lawyer she became.
A native of Windsor Heights, Hinz earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communication, with a double major in speech communication and a minor in political science, from Iowa State University in 1991. She then attended Drake University, earning both a J.D. and a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication in 1994.
After law school, Hinz moved to Minnesota to work for West Publishing as the first hire for a new company initiative: an online legal news service. “It was really ahead of its time,” Hinz recalled. “We were building a legal news platform before most people were thinking about how the internet would change information delivery.”
Within three years, Thomson Reuters acquired West Publishing and abruptly shut down the program, leaving Hinz at a professional crossroads.
“It really wasn’t fear so much as, ‘Okay … what now?’” she said with a laugh.
Soon afterward, Hinz and her husband moved to Cedar Rapids, where her sister lived, and she began exploring private practice opportunities.
Ironically, the connections that ultimately led her to the firm where she would build her career came directly through local bar involvement.
Shortly after moving to town, Hinz attended a Linn County Women Attorneys Association picnic, where members then invited her to attend the Linn County Bar Association summer outing during her first summer in Cedar Rapids in 1997.
“That’s where I learned about the opportunity at my firm,” she said. “So, in many ways, the bar association helped shape the entire direction of my career before I was even deeply involved in leadership.”
Hinz joined Pickens, Barnes & Abernathy later that year and has remained there ever since.
“I’ve had the great fortune and privilege to spend nearly my entire career working alongside the same two partners who hired me in 1997, Terry Abernathy and Matt Novak,” she said. “And for the past 12 years, we’ve also been fortunate to have Brad Kaspar at our firm. There’s something really special about building a practice with people you trust over many years.”
Over the years, Hinz has devoted countless hours to written advocacy, including motions, briefs, trial court filings, and appellate work before Iowa appellate courts and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Her journalism and communications background helped shape her approach to legal writing.
“I probably revise too much honestly,” Hinz said. “I write, revise, revise again, and keep polishing until it feels exactly right.” Hinz credits part of that instinct to her mother, an "exacting editor" who encouraged both her writing and her decision to attend law school.
She laughs that she often describes the brief writing process as involving “blood, sweat, and tears.”
“It can be stressful," she said. “But there’s also a real sense of pride when you step back and look at something you worked incredibly hard to craft well.”
Hinz’s involvement with the ISBA began relatively early in her legal career after former ISBA President Bruce Graves learned of her journalism background and asked her to help edit his president’s letters.
“One thing led to another,” Hinz recalled.
Soon afterward, she became the ISBA Membership Committee chair while simultaneously serving as Linn County Bar Association secretary — all while raising young children and building her practice.
Eventually, Hinz shifted more of her bar leadership efforts closer to home, becoming deeply involved in the Linn County Bar Association, where she served in numerous roles over the years, including maintaining the organization’s website, organizing events, leading Linn Law Club activities, and eventually serving as president of the association from 2010 to 2011.
“I’ve never believed leadership is about titles,” Hinz said. “It’s about showing up and helping.”
One formative leadership moment came during her tenure as Linn County Bar Association president following the 2010 judicial retention election involving Iowa Supreme Court Justices Marsha Ternus, David Baker, and Michael Streit after the court’s unanimous marriage equality decision in Varnum v. Brien.
Hinz still remembers standing before fellow bar members shortly after the election results were announced.
“I was stunned,” she recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘How did I not see this coming? How did this happen on my watch?’ Even though I was only one local bar president, I felt an enormous sense of responsibility.”
Looking back, Hinz says the experience reinforced for her the importance of civic engagement, public trust in institutions, and lawyers remaining actively involved in their communities and profession.
“It reminded me that we can’t take the rule of law, judicial independence, or public understanding of the legal system for granted,” she said.
Today, Hinz believes one of the ISBA’s greatest strengths is that it brings together lawyers from every corner of the profession.
“It doesn’t matter how someone lawyers,” she said. “Whether they practice in a large firm, a solo office, legal aid, government service, prosecution, public defense, business, academia, the judiciary, or in-house counsel — there is a place for them in the ISBA.”
She also emphasizes that the legal profession extends beyond attorneys alone.
“Our legal support professionals, administrators, government affairs professionals, and non-attorney affiliates are essential to what we do,” Hinz said. “Lawyers cannot effectively serve clients without talented people supporting the work behind the scenes.”
Hinz believes the profession’s breadth of experiences and perspectives is one of its greatest strengths.
“It takes lawyers of every kind to make our justice system, businesses, communities, and government function,” she said. “That collective voice and shared professionalism matter.”
As president, Hinz hopes to spend significant time traveling throughout Iowa to meet lawyers in communities of every size and better understand how the ISBA can support them.
“I would love to visit every county in Iowa and meet the lawyers there,” she said. “I want to hear what challenges they’re facing, what’s working well, what isn’t, and how the ISBA can help.”
Hinz believes many attorneys are so busy balancing clients, courts, businesses, and family responsibilities that they often do not have time to fully explore everything the ISBA offers.
“Lawyers are busy. Family should come first,” she said. “The ISBA should help ease the way so lawyers can do what they do better — not feel like one more obligation competing for their time.”
She hopes to continue making the ISBA feel less like a separate institution and more like an integrated part of lawyers’ professional and personal support systems.
“The ISBA isn’t simply ‘Des Moines,’” Hinz said. “It belongs to lawyers across the entire state and even to many members outside Iowa who still maintain strong ties to Iowa’s legal community.”
Hinz also sees the ISBA as a lifelong professional home that supports individuals throughout every stage of the profession.
“One of the things the ISBA already does incredibly well is support people from their earliest exposure to the legal profession all the way through retirement,” she said.
She points to the association’s longstanding involvement in mock trial programs, civic education, mentoring, law student outreach, public service efforts, and recognition of senior lawyers who have dedicated decades to the profession.
“The ISBA has lawyers and volunteers across Iowa doing amazing work in schools, communities, court programs, pro bono efforts, and mentorship,” Hinz said. “I want to continue strengthening those connections and helping more members understand the incredible resources and opportunities already available through the association.”
Hinz chaired the ISBA Well-Being Committee this past year, helping lead a variety of lawyer well-being initiatives and programming.
Among them was “Shift Happens,” an eight-part statewide series focused on lawyer well-being, along with wellness events, community-building activities, and “The Alcohol Experiment” program.
Hinz says she is especially proud of the ISBA Wellness Club, which launched in January and encourages lawyers, judges, law students, and legal professionals across Iowa to prioritize movement, accountability, and connection.
The club has quickly grown to more than 225 participants statewide.
But Hinz is quick to emphasize the effort is about far more than exercise.
“Yes, movement matters,” she said. “But the bigger goal is creating connection, support, encouragement, and community in a profession that can sometimes be stressful and isolating.”
Over the years, Hinz has organized bicycle rides, wellness walks, mentoring programs, puzzle-and-pizza gatherings, networking events, and other opportunities designed to help lawyers connect with one another outside traditional professional settings.
She says her commitment to lawyer well-being deepened after learning more about the number of attorneys across Iowa struggling with substance use and mental health challenges serious enough to require support through the Iowa Lawyers Assistance Program.
“The statistics were eye-opening,” Hinz said. “It reinforced for me how important connection, support systems, and community really are within this profession.”
While the ISBA provides practical resources ranging from CLE and IowaDocsÒ to networking and emerging technology education, Hinz believes the organization serves an even broader role within Iowa’s legal community.
“The practical resources matter,” she said. “But just as important are the relationships, mentorship, and sense of professional community the ISBA helps create across every corner of the profession. The ISBA really is for the ‘we,’ not the ‘me.’”
She points to civic engagement as another critical part of the ISBA’s mission, including mock trial programs, community education, outreach in schools and libraries, Law Day activities, and pro bono efforts throughout Iowa.
“The rule of law only works if the public understands and trusts it,” Hinz said. “Lawyers have an important role in strengthening civic understanding and public confidence in our institutions.”
Hinz also speaks frequently about the growing need for lawyers throughout Iowa and the importance of ensuring attorneys feel supported throughout their careers.
“People often thank me for my service when they learn I’m president-elect,” she said. “But honestly, I thank them for theirs. Lawyers across Iowa are doing incredibly important work every single day. Every lawyer matters.”
Outside the office and the ISBA, few things have shaped Hinz’s life more than RAGBRAI.
She first rode on RAGBRAI as a child when her parents decided it would be fun to take their daughters along for part of the ride. Decades later, the annual event remains one of the defining traditions of her life.
Hinz met her husband, Dan, on RAGBRAI in 1994. This August, the couple will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Together, they raised three children — Sam, Ben, and Kate — all of whom eventually joined their parents on the ride once they were old enough to reach the pedals.
“It’s not just the biking,” Hinz said. “It’s the generosity of the people, the beauty of Iowa, the gratitude you feel accomplishing something difficult, the conversations, the traditions, and yes — the pork chops, sweet corn, ice cream, and pie.”
She laughs describing RAGBRAI as the one week each year she willingly leaves behind her laptop — “which my husband considers basically an extra appendage the rest of the year.”
“Out on RAGBRAI, you leave behind stress, deadlines, and whatever frustrations you carried with you from work,” she said. “It feels like an annual renewal.”
Hinz and her husband Dan, a recently retired UPS health and safety supervisor, also enjoy thrift store shopping, movies, musicals, puzzles, and spending time with family. She loves baking banana bread “for everyone — including people who probably don’t even want it.” She also enjoys daily Wordle and Connections competitions with her husband and father and regularly exchanges handwritten letters with her daughter Kate.
Family remains central to Hinz’s life. Oldest son, Sam, is a software engineer in Cedar Rapids. Son Ben is a biomedical engineer with Boston Scientific in Minnesota, and his wife Ashley is a rising 2L at the University of Minnesota Law School. Kate recently graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in speech and hearing sciences and is currently pursuing a second degree in American Sign Language interpretation at Rochester Institute of Technology National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Hinz says none of her professional or bar leadership accomplishments would have been possible without the support of her family and law partners.
“My husband Dan has been a true partner in every sense of the word,” she said. “And I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the support of my kids and my partners throughout the years. You simply cannot do this work alone.”
Hinz also speaks warmly about her father, who graduated from Drake Law School 30 years before she did.
“His life took a different path and he never practiced law,” she said. “But he’s incredibly proud of my involvement with the ISBA. I think he wears his ISBA baseball cap everywhere.”
As she prepares to begin her presidential year, Hinz hopes Iowa lawyers understand that the ISBA belongs to all of them.
“A strong bar association isn’t built by a handful of leaders,” she said. “It’s built when people throughout the profession understand they belong there.”
When asked why she is willing to devote so much time and energy to the ISBA, Hinz’s answer comes quickly.
“Because this profession has given me so much,” she said. “I’ve benefited from incredible mentors, friendships, opportunities, and support throughout my career. If I can help more lawyers experience that same sense of connection and belonging — and help ensure there truly is no lawyer left behind — then the work is worth it.”
