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Suzie Smith, ’17, is a co-author of a book that tells the stories of women who are creating their own pathways to success in the legal profession. “Women in Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success” was published in February 2022. It features stories from 23 women lawyers and explores how they have chosen to define themselves and what the practice of law means for them.

The impetus for the book, Smith said, was a response to an article published on the ABA website. The piece indicated that women cannot be good lawyers and good mothers at the same time, Smith said. The argument was that women attorneys would be pulled in one direction or the other and one area of her life would suffer: either her children or her legal career. “Many women I network with on LinkedIn were upset,” she said. “They reached out to the ABA and didn’t get a good response, so these women decided to write a book to share their stories on how they define success. I don’t personally know these women, but the power of networking is such that they allowed me to share my story as well. These stories are told in an inspirational way to give hope to aspiring women in law school or other professions.”

Smith is an attorney at Taylor Chadd Minnette Schneider and Clutter in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She is currently on medical leave having contracted COVID-19 and shingles a couple of times during 2020 and is now struggling with long COVID. “I’m seeing medical specialists I didn’t know existed. Long COVID really is multi-system. But I am hoping to recover in time and see what happens.”