Susan Laing concentrates her practice in Railroad, General Tort and Civil Rights Litigation (including actions brought under Title VII and Section 1983), as well as appeals in the state and federal courts. She was admitted to the Bar of Illinois in 1992, the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, in 1992, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, in 1996, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois, in 1997 and the U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois, in 2001. In recent years, she has successfully tried cases ranging from FELA claims to wrongful death and survival claims arising out of grade crossing accidents and derailments, as well as civil rights claims alleging false arrest and excessive force and Title VII claims of discrimination and retaliation.
Born in Lorain, Ohio, Ms. Laing earned her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1983, her M.M. from Northwestern University in 1984, and her J.D., with honors, from DePaul University in 1992, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and awarded the American Jurisprudence Awards in Product Liability and Criminal Procedure.
Ms. Laing serves on the national executive committee for the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel, and has additionally given presentations to the national organization on deposing and cross-examining expert witnesses as well as successfully excluding them under both Daubert and Frye. Since 2009, she has been recognized as an Illinois Super Lawyer (top 5%) in the area of transportation, and has been recognized by her peers as a Leading Lawyer in that field since 2014.