Susan Hardie Jacks is a trial and appellate attorney focusing on complex commercial and bankruptcy litigation and, in particular, contingent fee business litigation for companies and bankruptcy trustees.

Susie’s business litigation includes civil disputes in a wide range of areas, including real estate and other investment fraud schemes, fiduciary duty litigation, intellectual property, construction, probate, professional malpractice and bankruptcy-based preference and fraudulent conveyance litigation.

As a bankruptcy lawyer, Susie has represented Chapter 11 debtors, Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 trustees, creditors’ committees, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, and parties to preference and fraudulent conveyance litigation. Her experience in representing all constituents of bankruptcy cases has facilitated efficient resolution of her clients’ disputes in bankruptcy matters.

Susie began her law career in Houston, Texas, where she practiced with one of the city’s five largest firms before she and other partners formed their own firm. Susie moved to Denver in 2000 and practiced there until returning to a Texas as a partner with a trial firm in 2004 where she was part of trial team focusing on complex contingent fee business litigation.

Following her return to Texas in 2004, Texas Monthly Magazine recognized Susie as a Texas Super Lawyer® from 2005-2014. In 2006, she was also named one of the “Top 100 Super Lawyers in the Houston Region” and one of the “Top 50 Female Super Lawyers in Texas.” She was recognized as a “Super Lawyer-Corporate Counsel Edition” from 2009 to 2013 in Bankruptcy. From 2012 through 2016, Susie was also recognized in “Best Lawyers in America®” in the field of Bankruptcy Litigation. Susie has been “AV” Peer Review Rated® by Martindale-Hubbell. From 1994-2014, Susie was certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Susie is licensed to practice in Colorado, Florida, Texas and Virginia.

Here is a sample of recent matters in which Susie has successfully represented her business clients:

  • Representation of a bankruptcy trust formed to pursue claims arising out of a real estate fraud scheme that involved 100+ institutional lenders and private investors who provided more than $70 million dollars to the debtors or their straw buyers. The trust sued title companies for (i) aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty, (ii) breaching their contracts, (iii) fraud, (iv) securities fraud, and (v) breaching their fiduciary duty in the handling of over 1,200 title transactions. After five years of litigation, two sets of defense counsel, and two appeals taken by the defendants, the case settled favorably to the trust.
  • Special counsel representation of two chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees of the estates of a real estate developer and his affiliated companies who perpetrated a Ponzi scheme involving straw buyers and promises of “guaranteed returns on investment.” The case involved more than 80 defendants, many of which were early “winners” in the scheme while other late investors and creditors went unpaid. The Trustees recovered more than $1 million for the estates.
  • When a private equity fund discovered that the CEO of one its companies was embezzling by selling off-the-books inventory and laundering the proceeds through offshore bank accounts, Michael Mihm and Susie joined forces to represent the fund in its lawsuit against the CEO and his wife. After a 10-day trial, a Fort Worth, Texas jury awarded $632,000 to the fund as compensation for its losses caused by the CEO’s theft. When the defendants attempted to prevent entry of judgment by filing chapter 7 bankruptcy, Susie and Michael immediately obtained relief from the automatic stay to obtain a final judgment and then prevented the CEO’s discharge of that liability in a second several-day trial before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Areas of Practice:

  • Commercial Litigation
  • Bankruptcy Litigation
  • Legal Malpractice Litigation

Education:

  • University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1983
  • Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, A.B., cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1980

Admissions:

  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Texas
  • Virginia
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States District Courts for all Districts of Texas and Colorado
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit