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Notes-worthy NewsLegendary Guild lawyer, Susan Jordan, diesby Paul HarrisWhen someone writes a history of great progressivelawyers, Susan Jordan will be included. Tragically, in May,this long-time Guild member died in a small plane crash atthe age of 67.In the 1960s, Susan volunteered to register black votersin Mississippi. This experience sparked her interest in law.She said, “I really admired the lawyers who were engagedin the civil rights movement . . . I knew then that’s what Iwanted to do.”Susan began law practice in 1970 with the People’s LawOffice in Chicago. At the time there were almost no womencriminal defense lawyers in private practice. She experiencedsexism and overt harassment from judges, bailiffs andother attorneys. But she persevered and overcame, eventuallymoving to San Francisco where her skills in federal andstate courts earned her inclusion in the book Best Lawyers inAmerica.While teaching part-time at New College Law School,Susan described herself as “a radical feminist who bringsthat political analysis to all aspects of my legal work.” In1974, she represented Inez Garcia in what would become theseminal case in educating and changing how the legal systemtreats violence against women. Ms. Garcia had been convictedof second degree murder for killing a man who helpedrape her. Hired for the retrial, Susan used a self-defensestrategy informed by the women’s movement and won a juryacquittal. For those who want to read about Susan’s work onthe Inez Garcia case, see Black Rage Confronts the Law.Against legal obstacles, a few years later, Susan began toraise the battered woman syndrome defense in jury trials. Sheis considered one of the pioneers of this now successful andconsciousness-raising strategy.Susan split her time between living and practicing in theSan Francisco Bay Area and in the Redwoods of MendocinoCounty. She represented Earth First!, political prisoner MarilynBuck, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, andeveryday people in trouble with the law. She also co-foundedWomen Defenders, an organization of women criminaldefense lawyers. To deal with the negative aspects of the adversarialsystem, she practiced and taught yoga and organizedmeditation sessions grounded in the Theravada tradition ofBuddhism.Susan and her husband, R.C. Wong, adopted a daughter,Jennifer, when she was 7 years old. Jennifer, with the collaborationof photographer Roslyn Banish, wrote a beautifuland enlightening book titled A Forever Family. The movingphoto of Susan, R.C. and Jennifer on the cover is, by itself,Susan B. Jordan. Photo © Roslyn Banish.worth the purchase.Heartfelt messages of solidarity and courtroom storiesfrom friends and colleagues are traveling throughout theInternet. Susan’s long-time friend Jennie Rhine wrote, “I firstmet Susan Jordan early in the 1970s, soon after she relocatedto the Bay Area from Chicago, at the National LawyersGuild’s annual convention outside of Boulder, Colorado. Theburgeoning women’s movement made sexism a hot issue atthe time, and Susan caught my attention at the meeting whenshe publicly told a male colleague to ‘put it away and zip itup!’ Susan was always ready to tell you what she thought!”Another fierce advocate of the dispossessed, LynneStewart, wrote, “I miss Susan presently and forever, as mymentor, my sister lawyer, but mostly as a kindred spirit lovinglife and fighting for justice.”Paul Harris had the privilege of working with Susanon numerous cases. He teaches “Guerrilla Lawyering” atGolden Gate Law School. □▪ 27 ▪