Access Restricted to Northwestern Law CommunitySusan Provenzano
Phone: (312) 503-0523
E-mail: s-provenzano@law.northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Professor Provenzano teaches Communication and Legal Reasoning and co-directs Northwestern’s Academic Counseling program. She is also the current chair of Northwestern Law’s faculty judicial clerkship committee. She is a frequent presenter at national and regional Legal Writing Institute conferences, and has written and spoken on topics ranging from legal analysis and learning theory to the pedagogical benefits of technology in the legal writing curriculum. Her current research interests center on the intersection of composition theory, learning theory, and the teaching of legal analysis.
Professor Provenzano received her law degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Wisconsin Law Review. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Ruben Castillo, U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
Before joining Northwestern’s faculty, Professor Provenzano practiced employment, labor and commercial litigation at the law firms of Kirkland & Ellis, Mayer, Brown & Platt, and Franczek Sullivan P.C. As a practicing attorney, she drafted petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court and other appellate briefs. Among her written work is a Supreme Court amicus brief that culminated in one of the Court’s landmark ADA decisions on the meaning of “disability.” See Albertsons v. Kirkingburg, 527 U.S. 555 (1999); Brief Amicus Curiae for the American Trucking Associations et al. in Support of Petitioner, 1999 WL 86569 (Feb. 22, 1999).
Professor Provenzano has also represented clients successfully in labor arbitrations and has briefed and argued numerous cases before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. In conjunction with her practice, she conducted client seminars and training on a wide range of labor and employment law topics.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Legal Research
- Labor and Employment Law
- Legal Writing
PUBLICATIONS
Representative Publications
- Younger Workers May Be a New Protected Class, National Law Journal, 1999 (with Gary D. Friedman)
Recent Publications
- Teaching in Reverse: A Positive Approach to Analytical Errors in 1L Legal Writing , Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, 2008
- E-Grading: The Pros and Cons of Paperless Legal Writing Papers, PERSPECTIVES: TEACHING LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING, 2004
EDUCATION
- BA, University of Wisconsin
- JD, University of Wisconsin
PRIOR APPOINTMENTS
- Law Clerk to the Honorable Ruben Castillo, Northern District of Illinois
- Attorney, Kirkland & Ellis
- Attorney, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Platt
- Attorney, Franczek Sullivan P.C.
RECENT CONSULTING ACTIVITIES
- Of Counsel, Franczek Sullivan P.C.
