MEET SUSAN

Picture a lawyer. Most of you see a lawyer speaking. I see a lawyer writing.

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Teaching

My legal writing was transformed when I was a third-year Legal Writing Instructor at Northwestern School of Law. I reviewed so many first-year students’ memoranda and briefs that I began to learn what worked. I was hooked – both on developing my own craft and helping others improve theirs. 

I was a full-time Legal Writing Instructor at Northwestern for one year after graduation. I continued to teach and coach legal writing after entering private practice. I was an Adjunct Legal Writing Instructor at two Chicago law schools; ran training programs at my law firms; and coached lawyers informally.  I taught trial and deposition practice for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). I was an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern in its Clinical Trial Advocacy Program. I even taught law basics to art students at the School of the Chicago Art Institute.

Throughout the years, my interest in and desire to be the best legal writer I can be only has intensified – as has my desire to instill this interest and desire in others.  

Legal Experience

I began my career as a criminal defense lawyer, working with the best trial lawyers in Chicago, notably Louis B. Garippo, who had been the judge in the John Wayne Gacy case.  I tried criminal juries involving allegations of public and police corruption, racketeering, mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. I also wrote many critical motions in the trial court and wrote and argued many appeals.

I switched my focus to civil law as the head of litigation for Sam Zell’s captive law firm, which serviced his public and private investments.  Working for Sam Zell taught me that legal should follow the business. This tenet guided my wide-ranging federal and state trial and appellate practice as a partner at Ungaretti and Harris, an outstanding mid-sized firm, which was purchased by Nixon Peabody, an Am Law 100 firm.

I opened my own practice two years after the Nixon Peabody purchase. My practice included two prestigious federal court appointments as the Compliance Monitor for the Cook County Assessor and the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County under the longstanding federal court Shakman decrees that prohibited political discrimination in hiring and other employment actions. More recently, I have been Senior Counsel at Dykema.

I have written nearly a hundred federal and state appeals, most of which I argued. And I have written and argued countless critical motions in the state and federal trial courts.

Accolades

My skills and experience have been recognized by my peers. I have been named an “Illinois Super Lawyer” for Business Litigation and a member of the “Illinois Leading Lawyers Network” for Commercial Litigation for the last ten years. I am Martindale Hubbell® A/V rated and a member of the Martindale Hubbell® Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers.