A homegrown attorney hung her shingle at 218 S. Front St., home to Mathews Law Office, PLLC.

Officially welcomed to downtown Dowagiac Tuesday afternoon by Chamber of Commerce and city officials who filled her office to overflowing, Sarah A. Mathews practiced law part-time since being licensed to practice in Michigan in 2008.

She handled primarily family law-related cases and estate planning issues while teaching part-time at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Southwestern Michigan College, of which her husband, David, is president.

“Over the past year, my caseload as a practicing attorney grew enough that I decided to make the transition from part-time to fulltime law practice,” she said. “It is my hope that through opening Mathews Law Office and transitioning to a fulltime law practice that I will be able to continue to serve my current clients as well as to make a positive impact on my home community by serving other individuals in need of legal assistance.”

The co-valedictorian of Dowagiac’s Class of 2000 said, “It was always my long-term goal during my law school career at Thomas M. Cooley Law School to return to the Cass County area to use my law degree to serve the residents of my hometown.”

In 2011, the president of her own Inspiration Scholarship Foundation was one of Leader Publications’ “Top 30 Under 40.”

She is vice chair of the Cass County Department of Human Services Board, which she joined in 2012, and president of Hope’s Door board. She has written several plays, including the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival tea in 2011.

Mathews ranked second of 243 in her law school class at Cooley, in Lansing, won the Brickley Class Distinguished Student Award and in 2006 and 2007 was a member of the National Appellate Advocacy Competition moot court national team.

She graduated summa cum laude in May 2004 from Hope College in Holland with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in business management, receiving the James Van Putin Political Science Prize and interning with U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J.

She interned with the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office in 2006, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman in 2007 and in Cass County Circuit Court from 2007 to 2009 as Circuit Judge Michael Dodge’s law clerk.

She currently participates as a member of the Cass County Family Treatment Court team.

 

“Truly, this is a special day. It’s not often we get to welcome a professional office downtown. I think it’s high time. I’m delighted to have you here. I’m as confident as I can be that it’s going to be outstanding, successful and a true credit to the community.”

— Mayor Donald Lyons