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Susan Ford Robertson serves as appellate counsel in state and federal courts in all stages of complex litigation, including working in close collaboration with trial counsel to protect and preserve the record prior to and during trial, as well as preparing and presenting appeals to all levels of appellate courts. Recent and current cases in which Susan has served as lead appellate counsel, the judgments exceed $1.7 billion. In over 200 published appeals she has handled as lead appellate counsel, the judgments at issue exceed $3 billion.
A former competitive track cycling racer, mountain climber and avid bicycle touring rider—including a 3,000-mile ride from Oregon to Minnesota—Susan continues to enjoy high-altitude hiking, logging over 80 miles a year in the Rocky Mountains. Susan brings an aggressive, focused, and sustained energy to each case.
Susan is an elected Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, an elected member of International Association of Defense Counsel, and she is recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice. She is a Senior Fellow in the American Institute of Appellate Practice and the Litigation Counsel of America and member of Defense Research Institute and Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers.
Recognition
She is recognized by Best Lawyers for appellate practice.
Susan was named one of the top 10 lawyers in Missouri and Kansas by Super Lawyers. She was named Lawyer of the Year 2020 by Missouri Lawyers Media. Twice she has been featured on the cover and profiled by Super Lawyers Missouri and Kansas publications. She is the only Missouri lawyer elected to serve as a director on Super Lawyer National Advisory Board and she has been recognized by Super Lawyers since 2005 in various categories, including Top 10 Missouri and Kansas Lawyers; Top 50 Women Lawyers Missouri and Kansas, Top 100 Missouri and Kansas Lawyers.
In 2012, Susan was the first female attorney in Missouri elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the past Chair of the Rules Committee. Susan is the recipient of the 2011 Women’s Justice Awards Litigation Practitioner of the Year. She is the 2010 Honorary Initiate of the Order of the Barrister awarded by the University of Missouri School of Law. She is the 2009 and 2005 recipient of The Missouri Bar President’s Award, the 2009 recipient of the Kansas City Legal Leaders Award for Civil Justice, the 2005 Defense Research Institute’s Excellence Award, and the 1996 recipient of the David A. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award. Susan was recognized by Missouri Lawyers’ Weekly as the private attorney who had appeared the most before the Missouri Supreme Court in 2007–2008 with five cases presented. Frequently the appeals she handles are recognized in the Missouri Lawyers’ Weekly Most Significant Opinions issue.
Service
Susan is a past Chair and Director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, and past Chair of the Appellate Judicial Retention Committee and Member of the Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee.
Susan is the past president of the Missouri Board of Law Examiners and the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers, having served on both boards for over 11 years. She is the current chair of the Litigation Division of The Missouri Bar and served as Chair of The Missouri Bar Civil Practice and Procedure Committee from 2001–2013. In 2009 she served on the United States Magistrate Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
She is the past Chair of the Missouri Supreme Court Appellate Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee; The Missouri Bar Civil Practice and Procedure Committee and member of the Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee.
She has previously served on The Missouri Bar Blue Ribbon Commission on the Independence of the Judiciary (2005), The Missouri Bar Special Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct (2002), The Missouri Bar Special Committee on Funding for Legal Services (2001); The Missouri Bar Special Committee of the Rules of Professional Conduct (2001); The Missouri Bar Special Committee on Ethics (2000); and on the United States District Court, Western District Federal Practice Advisory Committee (1996–2001).
Susan has presented over 90 seminars to judicial and bar associations on the state and national level on issues relating to trial and appellate practice and ethics. She has been invited to speak multiple times to the state trial and appellate judiciary in Missouri, three times for the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, twice for the Litigation Counsel of America, the Defense Research Institute, the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys, The Missouri Bar and the University of Missouri in Columbia and in Kansas City. She has served as an Inn Master of the Ross T. Roberts Inns of Court and served for several years as the Chair of the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers’ Trial Academy.