Susan Griffith

Professor Susan Griffith has been teaching part-time at the J. Reuben Clark Law School since 1995. She is the Director of the Family Law Clinic and has taught the doctrinal course on Family Law. She teaches or has taught service-learning courses in Elder Law, Domestic Violence Intervention, Child Advocacy and Domestic Relations. She has worked with the externship program for 22 years.  She teaches a Clinical Alliance course for students in private firms.  Professor Griffith started the Strategies in Legal Analysis course to help students prepare for the Bar. Most of Professor Griffith’s courses are tied to hands-on work in the community. She has worked extensively in the community including serving as the Chair of the Utah County Child Abuse Prevention Team, Chair of the Protective Order Committee on the Utah County Domestic Violence Coalition, Board Member on the Wasatch Mental Health Advisory Board, and Board Member for the Utah Crime Victims Center. Professor Griffith was an Assistant Attorney General in Child Protection during the 2003-2004 school year. Professor Griffith is the Executive Director of Timpanogos Legal Center (TLC), a non-profit organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and supporting local attorneys in providing pro bono services to low-income people.  TLC operates three clinics.  One is a weekly advice clinic for people with family law, housing, elder law and immigration questions.  The second is a Document Clinic designed to help self-represented parties prepare quality documents for their divorce or custody case. The third clinic is a courthouse clinic for pro se parties in which volunteer attorneys and mediators appear at a pretrial for the purpose of negotiating a resolution. Professor Griffith graduated with a BS in Psychology from BYU in 1984 and received her JD from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1987. She found her passion in representing low-income clients at Utah Legal Service from 1985-1993 first as an extern, then clerk, then staff attorney and ultimately as managing attorney. She primarily handled domestic cases in which the spouse or children were abused. Professor Griffith lives in Highland, Utah with her husband and they are the parents of five amazing children.