Susan L. Brooks, JD

Brooks is a pioneer in the emerging field of therapeutic jurisprudence, the study of how legal systems affect the emotions, behaviors and mental health of people. She is also an expert on experiential learning, family law and children’s rights. Brooks came to the law school from the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Law School. She was a co-founder of the Tennessee Relative Caregiver Coalition and the Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators and served as lead investigator for Tennessee’s Court Improvement Program and as a principal investigator on an Immigrant Community Assessment sponsored by Metropolitan Nashville. After clerking for the Hon. Bernard A. Friedman of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, she practiced with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago.