Global Webinar with Susan M. Finegan - Mintz

About our guest speaker:

Susan M. Finegan - Member at Mintz

Sue is a nationally recognized pro bono pioneer with a passion for helping underserved populations and exceptional litigation skills. As chair of Mintz’s Pro Bono Committee, she leads groundbreaking cases and manages pro bono matters for the firm. She has helped to defeat President Trump’s first immigration travel ban in early 2017, engineer the passage of a Massachusetts restraining order law for sexual assault survivors, and create several innovative statewide model pro bono programs in Massachusetts. She serves as co-chair of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission, which focuses on civil justice for low-income and disadvantaged people.

Sue is a Member in the Litigation Section and is Chair of the Pro Bono Committee. Appointed the firm’s first Pro Bono Partner in 2007, Sue serves as lead counsel on numerous high profile pro bono litigation matters. She also manages the firm’s pro bono efforts, consisting of over 300 varied cases annually throughout Mintz’s eight offices, and advises firm clients on developing and sustaining pro bono programs within their in-house legal departments.

As member and current co-chair of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission for several years, Sue has been a tireless and innovative advocate for low income people in Massachusetts and beyond. She has spearheaded creative funding mechanisms to support legal aid organizations and developed the statewide civil appellate pro bono program for self-represented litigants. Seven years ago, she co-founded the Access to Justice Fellows program, in which 139 retired and retiring lawyers have devoted over 100,000 pro bono hours at legal services organizations, nonprofits, and the courts.

From 2004 to 2007, Sue served as legal director of the Victim Rights Law Center, overseeing free statewide civil legal services to sexual assault survivors and providing training to legal aid attorneys nationally. While previously at Mintz, from 1993 to 2004, as an associate and then a partner, Sue handled complex commercial, white collar, defamation, land use, and insurance defense matters in both state and federal trial and appellate courts. She also performed extensive pro bono work, including oversight of the firm’s Domestic Violence Project.

Following law school, Sue served as a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew A. Caffrey at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and for the Honorable Francis P. O’Connor at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.