Susan Yorke, Esq.
Susan Yorke has participated in more than a hundred appeals, winning in the Ninth Circuit, Oregon Supreme Court, and California and Oregon intermediate appellate courts. She twice served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to Judges Susan P. Graber and Edward Leavy. She spent years focusing on civil and criminal appeals in the Ninth Circuit and state appellate courts while an Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice. She was also, for a time, Court Counsel to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau.
Susan has litigated appeals on topics ranging from constitutional and criminal law to trade secrets and professional licensure. She has dealt with complicated jurisdictional and procedural issues in both state and federal court, and conducted numerous realistic assessments on the chances for success in Ninth Circuit appeals from adverse decisions. She has provided strategic advice to trial teams with complex or high-stakes trial matters, consulting on pleadings and motions and ensuring that issues are adequately preserved for appeal.
In 2018, the Ninth Circuit’s appellate judges appointed Susan an Appellate Lawyer Representative to the Circuit’s Judicial Conference, one of a small number of lawyers hand-selected by the court to serve as a liaison between the bench and bar. In 2021, she was named a “Rising Star” in Appellate Law by Super Lawyers.
In addition to her appellate practice, Susan currently teaches the Ninth Circuit Practicum at Berkeley Law. She has also taught several other law school and college courses, including an interdisciplinary class on the Supreme Court and social change, as well as a writing-intensive class aimed at preparing students for judicial clerkships. She serves as co-editor of the ABA’s Appellate Practice Journal and on the Editorial Board for the Federal Bar Association’s magazine, The Federal Lawyer.
Susan graduated from Columbia Law School as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and obtained a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University. She received her undergraduate degree in mathematics and English, with honors, from Williams College.