
Susan R. Steingass received her undergraduate degree from
Denison University in 1963, her master's degree from
Northwestern University with honors in 1965, and received
her juris doctor, magna cum laude, from the University
of Wisconsin Law School in 1976, where she was a member
and Note and Comment Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review
and a member of Order of the Coif. After graduation
from law school, she served as law clerk to the Honorable
Nathan S. Heffernan, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin
Supreme Court. From 1985 to 1993 she was a Dane County
Circuit Judge, and in 1993 was elected Wisconsin Trial
Judge of the Year by the Wisconsin Chapter of the American
Board of Trial Advocates.
In addition to her career as an attorney, Ms. Steingass
teaches at the University of Wisconsin Law School
in the areas of civil procedure, evidence and trial
advocacy, and is currently the Director of the Communication
and Advocacy Program there. She has taught and served
as team leader at numerous National Institute for
Trial Advocacy programs around the country. She has
also taught evidence at the National Judicial College
in Reno, Nevada.
Ms. Steingass finished her term as President of the
State Bar of Wisconsin in July 1999, and also serves
as State Bar representative to the Federal Nominating
Committee. She is a member of the American Law Institute,
and an advisor to its work on the Restatement (Third)
of Torts, Apportionment of Liability. Ms. Steingass
is editor/author of Wisconsin Civil Procedure Before
Trial, and editor of The Wisconsin Rules of Evidence:
A Courtroom Handbook with the Honorable Thomas H.
Barland. She is Chair of the Wisconsin Sentencing
Commission. Ms. Steingass is an elected Fellow of
the American Bar Foundation, and was recently elected
to the Board of Trustees of the National Institute
for Trial Advocacy. She was named in the annual Best
Lawyers in America, and has been named co-recipient
of the prestigious Marygold Melli Achievement Award
given out annually by the Legal Association for Women.
Ms. Steingass practices in the Madison office.