Biography

Susan Shields currently serves as the leader of the firm's Tax and Family Wealth Practice 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.

Susan is a frequent speaker on a variety of estate planning, probate and non-profit 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 (Trusts and Estates) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers (Estate Planning and Probate, Tax, and Business/Corporate), where she was named to the 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 and as the 2005 recipient of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Earl Sneed Award. In 2005 Susan was honored as a finalist for the Journal Record’s Woman of the Year award.

Susan is currently serving a three-year term as a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association's Board of Governors.

In addition to donating her time as a volunteer and member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation 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.

Representative Experience All forms of wealth transfer tax planning and estate planning, including revocable trusts, wills, life insurance planning, dynasty trusts, GRATs, QPRTs, CRTs and IDGTs Business succession planning Asset protection planning, including family wealth preservation trusts Marital planning Family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies Tax-exempt organizations formation and ongoing advice on governance and transactions Will contest litigation

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