Staff Reports
West Palm Beach attorney Michelle Suskauer has been chosen as president-elect designate of The Florida Bar, according to a Wednesday press release.
Suskauer, 50, is a criminal defense attorney in a two-lawyer office in West Palm Beach. She’s married to Judge Scott Suskauer of the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County.
She prevailed over Lansing “Lanse” Scriven, of Tampa, receiving 12,993 votes to Scriven’s 10,188 votes in the first contested election for Bar president since 2011.
Suskauer will be sworn in as president-elect at the Bar’s annual convention in Boca Raton on June 23, when current President-elect Michael J. Higer of Miami becomes president. Suskauer will begin her term as Bar president in June 2018.
Of interest to Capitol watchers, she has called the work of the Constitution Revision Commission a “major concern.”
“The issues to watch closely are term limits for judges, taking procedural rulemaking authority away from the courts, and the Supreme Court’s ability to regulate lawyers,” according to the release.
Suskauer received the Serving Justice Award from the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County; the Justice Barbara Pariente Award from the Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers; and the Women in Power Award from the National Conference of Jewish Women.
Suskauer’s service with the Bar includes chair of the Disciplinary Review Committee, the Communications Committee and the Annual Convention Committee.
After graduating from Boston University in 1988 with a degree in communications, Suskauer received her law degree from The American University in 1991 and went to work that year at the Office of the 15th Circuit Public Defender.
Three years later, she joined Schuler, Wilkerson, Halvorson & Williams. In 1997, she launched her own firm, Suskauer Law Firm, P.A., now Suskauer Feuer LLC.
Suskauer is president of the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County and past-president of the Palm Beach County Bar Association and the Palm Beach County Chapter of FAWL.
