Fall 2020 Faulkner Lifestyle

“
Initially, I was very interested in
estate tax and criminal law. I know,
those are two very different things,
but so are the Cubs, Cardinals, and
Yankees, and I love all of them,
”
Judge Weaver laughs.
At Home with
Judge Susan Weaver
BY JENNIFER STANLEY
PHOTOS BY BRANDY STRAIN-DAYER
Susan Weaver serves as First
Division Circuit Court Judge,
Twentieth Judicial District
for Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy
Counties. However, she did not initially
set out to pursue a career in law or
politics. “Oddly enough, I wanted to be
a physical therapist when I first went to
college. I changed my major and earned
my Bachelors in Speech-Language
Pathology,” she says.
Upon graduation from the University
of Central Arkansas; however, she
pivoted toward law. “I began my
graduate degree in criminal justice
before switching gears to a law degree.
I graduated from the University of
Arkansas with my doctorate in law
and made my way back to Central
Arkansas. While in law school, I spent
a summer in Cambridge, England, at
Cambridge University, where I studied
international law,” says Susan. Once
she completed law school, she earned
her certification in taxation from the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“I was very interested in estate tax and
criminal law. I know, those are two
very different things, but so are the
Cubs, Cardinals, and Yankees, and I
love all of them,” she laughs.
Susan began her post-law school career
as a law clerk for a private firm in Alma,
Arkansas. Next, she worked as a law
clerk for the Arkansas Court of Appeals
for Supreme Court Justice Karen Baker,
who was then an appellate court judge.
Following this, Susan worked in private
practice while simultaneously serving
as a deputy prosecuting attorney. Next,
she worked full-time in private practice
and served part-time as prosecutor for
the City of Vilonia and later as their
municipal judge.
At this point in her career, the state
restructured municipal judgeships; rather
than having multiple city judges, they
were combined into elected county
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