Susan Frances joined Jill M. Metz & Associates in 2005. She enjoys her focus on adoption law and estate planning. Susan is the appointed Vice-Chair of the 2012-2013 Chicago Bar Association’s Adoption Committee, and is writing about second parent adoptions for adoptive parents, including her most recent article in the Summer 2012 edition of The CAFFA Connection.
Susan was awarded her Juris Doctorate in 2002 from Southern Illinois University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the annual Hiram H. Lesar Survey of Illinois Law edition of the Southern Illinois University Law Journal and had her article Every Judgment Is A Weapon If You Hold It Right: Right to Expressive Association in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale published. Susan’s familiarity with alternative dispute resolution methods from law school through actual practice led her to complete an additional mediator training program at DePaul University in 2011. She has served on the Steering Committee of the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Steering Committee of the Open Door Youth Center in Bloomington, Illinois, and Board of the Rainbow Café Youth Program in Carbondale, Illinois. Her volunteer work since moving to Chicago has ranged from being a legal observer with the ACLU to being a volunteer educator with the Lifespan Faith Development program at her Unitarian Universalist church. Susan’s advocacy work for issues from religious freedom to freedom of assembly to equal rights for the LGBTQ community makes her an able advocate for and good counsel to her clients.
