Susan Shields currently serves as the leader of the firm's Tax and Family Wealth Group. She practices in the areas of tax and family wealth focusing on wealth transfer tax planning for high net worth families and individuals, business planning for closely held family businesses, estate and trust administration, business entity formation, and the formation and administration of tax-exempt organizations. She also previously served as the leader of the firm’s Tax and Family Wealth Group.
Susan is a frequent speaker on a variety of estate planning, probate and nonprofit topics at professional and continuing legal education seminars and has served as an adjunct professor of law in estate planning at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Her writing credits include “Oklahoma’s New Family Wealth Preservation Trust Act,” published on October 2, 2004, by the Oklahoma Bar Journal and “What Do You Need To Know About Oklahoma’s New Education Lottery?” published on January 15, 2005, by the Oklahoma Bar Journal. She also served as editor and coordinator of the “OBA/CLE 2001 Form Book” and the “OBA/CLE 2005 Form Book” published by the Oklahoma Bar Association.
Susan’s experience and expertise have earned her recognition in The Best Lawyers in America (litigation and controversy - tax, trust and estates litigation, non-profit/charities law, tax law, trusts and estates) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers, where she has consistently been named to its prestigious “Top 25 Female” and “Top 50 Oklahoma Lawyers” lists. She has also been recognized as Outstanding Pro Bono Lawyer by Legal Aid of Western Oklahoma in 1993, received the Oklahoma Bar Association's Earl Sneed Award in 2005 and its Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Award in 2011, and was named to the Journal Record's list of Leadership in Law honorees in 2011. Susan is also a two-time finalist for the Journal Record's Woman of the Year Award (2005 and 2010).
Susan is an elected fellow of the prestigious American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and is currently serving a three-year term as a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Board of Governors. She has also taught estate planning and wealth transfer tax as an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
In addition to donating her time as a volunteer and member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation's planned giving council, Susan heads the Central Oklahoma Stanford Alumni Club and has served as a member of the board of directors for the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits and on the board of directors for SpiritBank.