Susan Swick was a partner and is currently of counsel to the firm, having semi-retired. She was certified as a Specialist in Family Law by the State Bar of Arizona from the date attorneys were first certified in that specialty in 1992 until she “retired” her certification in September 2023 by choosing not to renew. Susan is named in Best Lawyers in America and in Super Lawyers of the Southwest in Family Law.
During her first ten years practicing law, she represented clients in the areas of commercial transactions and commercial and employment law litigation. Thereafater she combined that transactional and litigation experience to focuse her practice in all areas of family law, including complex financial and business valuation issues in divorces, custody and parenting time issues, paternity cases, premarital and cohabitation agreements, appellate matters and other family law related matters.
Susan obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology from Southern Methodist University and her law degree from Arizona State University School of Law. She is admitted to the Bar in Arizona and Texas (inactive) and to the Federal Court for the District of Arizona.
Susan was the first Chair and then a member for several years of the State Bar’s Family Law Practice and Procedure Standing Committee and is a past Council Member of the Executive Council of the Bar’s Family Law Section. In addition to the Family Law Section, she has been a member of the American Bar Association and the Maricopa County Bar Association Family Law Sections. Her other professional activities have included being a Commissioner and then Chair of the Disciplinary Commission of the Arizona Supreme Court, serving on the Ethics Committee and Peer Review Committee of the State Bar, the Maricopa County Spousal Maintenance Guidelines Committee, the Minorities-in-Law Committee and Judicial Evaluation Committee of the County Bar Association. She was a Member of the Sandra Day O’Connor Inn of Court and was one of twenty women lawyers in a People-to-People Delegation touring the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
Susan is a founding member, past President and member since its inception of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association. She served twice as a Judge Pro Tempore on the Arizona Court of Appeals and for many years on the Maricopa County Superior Court. She provides counsel to lawyers in the disciplinary system on behalf of the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. She has been a practice monitor in the State Bar disciplinary process.
Susan has been committed to community and familial involvement during her professional life. Currently she is involved in making beds for children in Maricopa County who have no beds through Sleep in Heavenly Peace and in the past she sat on the Phoenix Police Department Disciplinary and Use of Force Boards as a civilian member, coached the Central High School Mock Trial Team for four years and was on the Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters Donation Center Advisory Board of Directors, the Phoenix Zoo Marketing Committee and the Phoenix Board of the Arizona Theatre Company.
Over the years Susan has been a speaker at seminars focusing on family law matters and ethics and professional responsibility.
