Thomas M. Susman, head of the lobbying office for the American Bar Association (ABA) in Washington, D.C., will receive The University of Texas School of Law Outstanding Alumnus Award on April 15.
The award honors a graduate who has made outstanding contributions not only to the legal profession, but to society as a whole.
Susman works to advance the policies adopted by the ABA. Before joining the ABA in May 2008, he was a partner in the Washington office of Ropes and Gray LLP for more than 27 years. Prior to entering private practice, he served on Capitol Hill for more than 11 years. He was chief counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure and general counsel to the Antitrust Subcommittee and to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prior to that he clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and was special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice. He graduated from Yale University and received his juris doctor degree with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1967, where he was editor in chief of the Texas Law Review.
Susman was on the Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates of the ABA, was president of the D.C. Public Library Foundation, chaired the board of trustees of the National Judicial College and served on advisory boards of the National Security Archives, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
He is a life member of the American Law Institute and the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the boards of the National Conference on Citizenship and the National Freedom of Information Center and president of the District of Columbia Open Government Coalition. He is chair of the Ethics Committee of the American League of Lobbyists and is coeditor of and a contributor to The Lobbying Manual. Susman has frequently written, testified before Congress and lectured in the U.S. and abroad on legislative process, open government and politics.
Susman lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Braden, a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He has four children and five grandchildren.
Other award winners include the Honorable Sam Sparks, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Ann Barnett Stern, who received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service; and Wayne A. Reaud, who received the Honorary Order of the Coif.
