Overview

Whether as a litigator or the client, Susan has spent over 20 years defending complex civil litigation, including product liability, healthcare, and insurance coverage cases. Most recently, she represents West Virginia’s largest healthcare system and its hospitals in complex federal litigation brought by a competitor. She has handled the matter through extensive discovery, dispositive and pretrial motions, a multi-week jury trial, and post-trial proceedings.

Prior to joining Thomas Combs & Spann PLLC, Susan was the General Counsel at West Virginia Mutual Insurance Company, West Virginia's largest medical professional liability insurer (2016 to 2021). During her time at West Virginia Mutual, Susan assisted with corporate governance and corporate contracts and agreements, managed the company's corporate litigation, analyzed insurance coverage determinations, and provided legal guidance to the company's various departments. While at the West Virginia Mutual, she managed and coordinated its response to two high-profile, multi-plaintiff sets of litigation involving claims of professional misconduct and malpractice.

Susan has broad experience defending, coordinating, and managing complex civil litigation, including commercial, product liability, and multi-district litigation, both in private practice and as General Counsel at West Virginia Mutual. She spent more than a decade representing domestic and foreign automotive manufacturers in product liability cases in West Virginia and has also represented agricultural and recreational vehicle manufacturers, a non-coal surface mining and trucking operation, insurance companies, and other businesses. She also represented a major pharmacy chain in complex litigation brought by state and local governmental entities and has experience litigating estate and trust disputes.

Susan was previously a member of Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso PLLC, where she worked from 2005 to 2016.