Thomas M. Susman

Thomas M. Susman is the American Bar Association’s strategic advisor for Global Programs and Governmental Affairs. He assumed that role after retiring in 2018 as the director of the Governmental Affairs Office and associate executive director of te American Bar Association (a position he held from May 2008).

Prior to joining the ABA, he was a partner in the Washington Office of Ropes & Gray LLP for 27 years. There his work included counseling, litigation, and lobbying on a wide range of regulatory, antitrust, health care, ethics, and information law issues.

Before joining Ropes & Gray, Tom served on Capitol Hill for more than 11 years. He was chief counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure and general counsel to the Antitrust Subcommittee and to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prior to that, he served in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tom created and co-edits The Lobbying Manual; served as an adjunct professor at The American University’s Washington College of Law; and chairs the Ethics Committee of the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics. His articles address lobbying reform, reciprocity, contingent fee lobbying, and campaign contributions. He has also written, taught, and lectured both in the United States and abroad on transparency, access to government information, and administrative law.

Tom chaired the Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section of the ABA and served in the ABA’s House of Delegates and on its Board of Governors. He is a member of the American Law Institute, was chair of the National Judicial College Board, was president of the District of Columbia Public Library Foundation, and is founding president of the D.C. Open Government Coalition. In November 2023, Tom was honored by the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics with its inaugural “Best Lobbyist” Lifetime Achievement Award.