Susan Petersen’s career has always been based on telling people’s stories – first, as a broadcast journalist at several Ohio television news stations, and then, as an esteemed civil trial lawyer in Ohio’s courtrooms. She worked in the trenches as a reporter at WEWS-TV5 in Cleveland while attending law school, developing a knack for digging deep to uncover the truth behind every story. It was these journalistic and investigative skills that launched a legal career in which she has always represented everyday people in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. Since starting her own law firm in 2004, she has recovered over $50 million in verdicts and settlements for her clients in courtrooms across Ohio.

From the very beginning, Susan has been an advocate for women in law, writing and producing CSU Law’s 2000 Documentary “’Remember the Ladies’ – A Salute to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law’s First Female Graduates,” and working her way up the ranks to President of the Ohio Women’s Bar Association in 2007. In 2008, Crain’s Cleveland Business Magazine selected her to its class of “Forty under 40” – a salute to Northeast Ohio’s most influential people under the age of 40. Since then, she has continued to lead, serving for more than a decade on the boards of the Ohio Association for Justice, the Cleveland Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the CSU Law Visiting Committee, now a member of its Executive Committee.

Her trial skills have earned her numerous recognitions, including induction as a member of both the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2013 and the International Society of Barristers in London, England in 2019. During 2019, the International Barristers Society elected Susan to serve on its Foundation Board and, in 2022, to its Board of Governors. Susan has been honored as an “Ohio Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics Magazine in every edition since 2013. She continues to tirelessly advocate for her clients and to pay it forward to the practice as a frequent lecturer on trial practice in Ohio.