Member, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
Photo by Steptoe & Johnson PLLC.
By Kristen Uppercue
Susan Brewer, a member at Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, has always known she wanted to be in the courtroom. Brewer’s mother was a homemaker and her dad a trial attorney. Throughout high school and college summer breaks, she would fill in to help around her dad’s office when staff would be away, learning to be a receptionist, bookkeeper, secretary, runner and ultimately a paralegal.
“I am pretty sure I did every job in the firm except for attorney,” she says. “I learned the importance of attention to detail, both in running an office and in handling cases.”
Brewer attended Duke University, where she double majored in English and political science and graduated in 1976 before attending Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she graduated in 1980. For two and a half years, she attended school at night as she was working as a paralegal with a law firm in Washington, D.C., which allowed her to pay for law school. She met her husband, Bill, in law school, and they were married during the fall semester of their third year. In her last year of law school, she switched to a full-time program so they could graduate together.
Two weeks after graduating, Brewer began working at Steptoe & Johnson, and nearly 42 years later, is still there.
“I realize that an entire career at one place sounds unusual these days. Although I had many offers, I never considered leaving my firm,” Brewer says. “The lawyers and staff were smart, good people who all wanted me to succeed. The firm is cutting edge in policies and practice, both for clients and employees. Everyone has a voice because we always operate as a team.”
When Brewer started her career, she was one of very few female litigators in West Virginia.
“Here and there I would encounter attorneys who didn’t know how to deal with a female attorney, much less a female litigator. I had some experiences I can look back on and laugh out loud—like the attorney who suggested I stuff a pillow up my dress so I’d look pregnant and win the case,” she says. “Most of the experiences involved attorneys who didn’t take me seriously or, even better, underestimated me. It was fun to prove them wrong and beat them, which I did pretty often.”
Brewer recalls Steptoe & Johnson having a huge litigation practice when she joined and one of the senior litigators taking a leave of absence in Brewer’s early years at the firm.
“We divided up his caseload by literally sitting around a conference room table and dealing out the files like playing cards,” she says. “The young litigators were thrown into a high level and busy practice. I call 1980 through the mid-2000s the glory years of litigation because everything went to trial. One year, I tried 14 cases—it was crazy, but I loved every minute.”
Brewer’s partners at the firm encouraged her to get into firm leadership at a young age. She served on the firm’s executive committee for many years, and when Bob Steptoe stepped down as the firm’s managing partner, Brewer was elected to take his place in 2008—the first female managing partner of a West Virginia law firm at a time when only 8% of law firm managing partners nationwide were women. She served as managing partner and CEO for 12 years.
In 2001, she was inducted as a fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only organization limited to the top 1% of attorneys in each U.S. state and each province in Canada. Brewer served as state chair for West Virginia for years and recently completed a four-year term as regent where she was in charge of the fellows in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
“Being elected a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers is the highest honor any litigator can hope for, so I was really humbled to be inducted into such a prestigious organization,” she says.
Brewer received the Justitia Officium Award from the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law in 2013 and was named by The State Journal as one of West Virginia’s Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in 2012.
Brewer and her family like giving back to their community by supporting local organizations and causes. She has previously served on the boards of her church and community hospital, and since 2010, she has served on the WVU Foundation’s board of directors. Her husband and their two sons are Eagle Scouts and have been very involved with the scout troop for many years.
Brewer has also served on the West Virginia Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission through multiple administrations. For several years, she has chaired the commission, which is composed of attorneys and citizens who interview candidates and make recommendations to the governor for appointment to vacant judicial positions.
“Helping the governor make these appointments is a way to give back to my profession and put my decades of experience to good use,” Brewer says. “Our work helping the governor appoint the first judges for the Intermediate Court of Appeals was groundbreaking this year.”
She is also passionate about mentoring young litigators, especially those who move into leadership positions—something she has done at her firm for years.
“I made every effort to teach them how to try a case and usually had a young attorney with me on my more complicated trials so they could help out and get some experience,” she says. “It was very rewarding to see them develop into fantastic trial lawyers.”
Since she finished up her years as managing partner of the firm, Brewer has been slowly reducing her professional responsibilities, taking up other hobbies instead. She returned to her love of reading, particularly nonfiction. However, she temporarily switched to fiction as her son’s novel “The Red Arrow” was recently released. She also enjoys being outside, whether that means gardening and spending spring and summer weekends working in the yard or crossing items off her and her husband’s bucket lists, such as learning to fly fish in Wyoming and Idaho or going on the Band of Brothers Tour in 2023. She’s hoping to fully retire very soon.
“But, after almost 42 years, it’s hard to do,” she says.
Despite both her and her husband growing up in big-city suburbs, living in West Virginia has suited them well. Brewer and her husband have lived in Morgantown for more than 40 years, where they have raised four children.
“Being a good daughter, sister, wife, mother and now grandmother is the most important goal for me,” she says. “I know I haven’t always gotten it right, but it’s not because of a lack of effort.”
While she has loved her career, Brewer says that she loves being a parent even more, despite it being the hardest job she’s ever had.
“I hope I have been a good role model for other female lawyers. I always tried to show how it’s possible to be a busy litigator and still have a large and active family,” she says. “I believe I’ve also shown that it’s possible to be a high-level leader and still have a great family life.”
