by Brett
Lieberman for Virginia Business December 2005
Susan Hicks didn’t get her law career off the
ground until her 30s. She put her ambitions on hold
to get married and have two daughters.
The early detour came during the years that many young lawyers are hard at work
building their careers and trying to make partner. But she has no regrets, The
extra time spent raising a family before going back to school provided her with
the insight and patience that clients say make her one of the state’s best
family law attorneys. “You feel like you are her most important client,” says
Kristie Ketchum, a client that Hicks represented in a child custody and equitable
distribution case.
“It was a terrible divorce, it was hard, but I don’t know what I
would have done if I had one of these other attorneys that I saw my husband had,” she
adds.
Such sentiments are shared by clients as well as lawyers who have handled cases
with Hicks. Her friendliness disarms opposing attorneys. Her attention to detail
and ability to cut through the clutter and focus on the handful of critical details
in a mound of documents impresses clients.
Hicks also doesn’t try to run up clients’ bills. Rather than charge
them her $400-per-hour fee, she advises them to get counseling from therapists
and leave the legal and financial work to her.
Family law seems to fit Hicks perfectly, but she didn’t plan to practice
that field. Trying cases as a litigator was a attraction, as it is for many
young attorneys, but she decided it was not for her.
Hicks started a general law practice that eventually would become the Susan
Hicks Group. But she developed a niche handling divorce and family law cases
because
clients needed a lawyer capable of helping them through complex personal situations. “You
deal with clients under a lot of stress,” says Hicks. The often difficult
trick is trying to get them to see the case objectively.
Although she is a respected litigator, Hicks urges clients to negotiate a settlement
rather than go to court, where the arguments can be contentious and the outcomes
uncertain.
Given the nature of her work, it’s no surprise that the Georgetown Law
School graduate prizes her family. When not working, she and husband Bruce Titus,
an attorney with Rees, Broome & Diaz (who also has been recognized as one
of the state’s Legal Elites), are homebodies. They enjoy skiing, cooking
and spending time with their grown children.
A major appeal of a family law practice is that most cases usually last a year
or two. “You get a feeling of having actually seen a case through,” says
Hicks. In a large firm, lawyers working on a long case may never get to see
it to completion because aspects are handled by lawyers with different specialties.
Men and women often feel the other gets preferential treatment in divorces.
But Hicks thinks that both sexes get fair treatment these days in Virginia.
That
trend also is helping to change the public’s perceptions of lawyers. “I
think divorce lawyers used to have a reputation for being street fighters,” Hicks
says. “It really was much more of who the biggest dog was.”
Once in a while, though, clients want their attorney to be an attack dog. “Sometimes
clients ask why she’s being so nice or not writing mean letters to opposing
counsel,” says Hicks.
She advises clients that such actions cost money and waste time. “I believe
civility is important, and it becomes more important the older I get.”
