TOPIC: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: On Being American

SPEAKER: Suzanne Reynolds, Dean and Professor Emerita, Wake Forest Law

RBG expanded our concept of who and what was included in the concept of being American. As a lawyer for the ACLU’s Women’s Project, she advocated for an expansive theory of equal protection that eventually she would enshrine as an associate justice on the Supreme Court.

BIOGRAPHY

Suzanne Reynolds is widely respected for her scholarship and teaching about family law and for her public service.

She was a principal drafter of statutes that modernized the law of both alimony and of adoption, and she co-founded a domestic violence program that received national recognition by the ABA for providing legal assistance to the poor. Suzanne authored a three-volume treatise on North Carolina family law that has become the authoritative source for law students, lawyers, and judges.

Her empirical work has focused on outcomes in high conflict custody disputes. She was the recipient of a Distinguished Woman of the Year award presented by Governor Hunt in 1998 and of the Gwyneth B. Davis award for Public Service presented by N.C. Association of Women Attorneys in 1996.

Suzanne was a candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court in November 2008, narrowly losing her bid for that seat. Before teaching, she practiced civil litigation at Smith, Moore, Smith, Schell & Hunter (now Smith Moore Leatherwood.) She and her husband, Robert (Hoppy) Elliot, who is a partner in the law firm of Elliot Morgan Parsonage, have three adult children: Michael, Caroline, and Lillie.

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