Stephen Susman

Stephen Daily Susman (January 20, 1941 – July 14, 2020) was an American commercial plaintiffs attorney, and founding and name partner of Susman Godfrey LLP. He won more than $2 billion in damages and settlements in just three cases, including a $1.1 billion settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in ''Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments'', and a $536 million jury verdict in ''El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp''.

In 2020, Susman was seriously injured in a biking accident, which left him in a coma for more than a week. While rehabilitating from the injury, he contracted COVID-19 and died.

Early and personal life

Susman was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up in the Riverside neighborhood in the city, at a time when Jewish families such as his were barred by deed restrictions from living in River Oaks, the city's most expensive neighborhood. His father, Harry, was a graduate of Yale Law School where he was Editor of the ''Yale Law Journal'', and practiced law in Houston until his death of a bleeding ulcer at the age of 50.

His mother, Helene Daily Susman, was a 1934 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, and returned to her law practice and raised Susman and his brother after the death of their father when Susman was eight years old and his brother Tommy was six years old. His mother became the first woman from Texas admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Susman said: "My mother and father were both lawyers, so I never even thought about doing anything else."

He and his brother also attended the University of Texas School of Law, at the insistence of their mother. In addition, his son Harry attended the University of Texas School of Law. He was editor-in-chief of the ''Texas Law Review'' and clerked for a Supreme Court Justice.

His first wife, Karen Hyman Susman, from Austin, Texas, married Susman in 1965. She died in 1997 at age 55. Susman and Karen had two children; Stacy and Harry. He married Ellen Spencer Susman, at the time a television personality, in 1999. They had homes in Aspen, Colorado, Houston, Napa, and New York City.

Education

Susman attended Yale University, where he earned a B.A. ''magna cum laude'' in English in 1962. While at Yale, to make ends meet he waited tables in the school's dining hall, acted as a travel agent for his classmates, ran a student laundry, and leased out caps and gowns to his graduating classmates.

Susman earned his J.D. at the University of Texas School of Law with highest honors in 1965. While attending law school, Susman was editor-in-chief of the ''Texas Law Review'', graduated first in his class with the highest grade point average in the school's history, was a member of the Order of the Coif, and was Grand Chancellor. He then clerked for the Honorable John R. Brown of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and for Justice Hugo Black at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Legal career

Returning to Texas, Susman joined the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), becoming one of its first Jewish partners. For the first eight years of his career he was a defense lawyer, before becoming a plaintiffs' lawyer. After taking a leave of absence and teaching antitrust law at the University of Texas Law School, and considering becoming a full-time law professor (a notion nixed by his then-wife), in 1976 he joined a small plaintiffs maritime firm, Mandell & Wright of Houston, that had a contingency practice, to start a new commercial litigation practice there.

Susman Godfrey

Susman founded Susman Godfrey LLP in 1980. The firm specializes in representing plaintiffs in antitrust and securities class actions on a contingent fee basis. In January 2005 the firm was named one of the top two litigation boutiques in the country by ''The American Lawyer

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