Susan Estrich - Biography
Susan Estrich wears many hats, as a politician, a professor, a lawyer, and a writer who tackles legal matters, women's concerns, national politics, and social issues.
Her writings have appeared in newspapers such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, and she has been a commentator on countless TV news programs on CNN, Fox News, NBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
A best-selling author, Estrich's works include "Who Needs Feminism, Sex and Power?" (2000) and "Getting Away With Murder: How Politics is Destroying the Criminal Justice System" (1998).
Estrich, the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Southern California Law Center, graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa scholar with highest honors from Wellesley College in 1974. She attended Harvard Law School, where she was selected president of the Harvard Law Review and received her JD magna cum laude in 1977.
After serving as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, Estrich had her first taste of politics as deputy national issues director with the Kennedy for President campaign in 1979.
She was named executive director for the Democratic National Platform Committee in 1984 and worked as a senior policy adviser to the Mondale-Ferraro presidential campaign. She gained national prominence as national campaign manager for Dukakis for president in 1988.
Estrich, who lives in Los Angeles, also performed some private legal practice, serving as a counsel for the firm of Tuttle & Taylor in Los Angeles from 1986 to 1987.