Susie Lake

Susie Lake is a Staff Attorney with the Missouri office. Prior to joining MJC in 2024, Susie was a Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington in Seattle, one of ACLU’s largest affiliates, where she researched and litigated a wide range of civil rights issues, including, but not limited to, discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status; issues around policing and incarceration; issues impacting unhoused individuals; and education issues throughout Washington. Additionally, Susie submitted multiple amicus curiae briefs on a variety of issues, including advocating for the rights of transgender individuals in places of public accommodation; arguing that Washington’s Minimum Wage Act applies to civil detainees in private, for-profit prisons; and outlining that Washington’s Constitution provides that children cannot be pushed out of school with no education services. Although Susie loved her time in Seattle, she is excited to be back in her adopted community of St. Louis, working to address our unjust criminal legal system.   

Before moving to Seattle, Susie clerked for Magistrate Judge Mark A. Beatty in the Southern District of Illinois, where she worked on a variety of cases, including a significant portion of cases involving civil rights issues in prisons. Susie started her legal career at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM). There, Susie represented children in school disciplinary hearings and special education matters, and was the first attorney at LSEM to file an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) due process complaint and take the case through to an administrative hearing. Additionally, Susie was the first LSEM attorney to successfully negotiate for attorney’s fees in a special education case. Along with her colleagues, Susie brought a novel McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act case, which was the first of its kind in Missouri. While working at LSEM, Susie was also an Adjunct Professor at Washington University School of Law leading the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Program.  

Susie is a 2015 graduate of Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Global Studies Law Review, one of four journals at the law school. In law school, Susie worked at the Innocence Project New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.; and at the Legal Aid Board in Durban, South Africa. Prior to law school, Susie spent four years teaching high school English in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. Susie has a bachelor’s degree in English (with Honors) from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Susie is admitted to the Missouri, Washington, Western District of Washington, Ninth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States Bars. 

Susie lives in St. Louis with her spouse and many dogs—she loves gardening and learning about Missouri’s native plants, and is frequently found practicing Pilates around town.