Paule Camazine & Blumenthal attorney Susan Block was selected by St. Louis Magazine as a finalist in its inaugural Excellence in Law Awards in the November 2016 issue. Block’s recognition in the area of Community Service met the award’s criteria of being a lawyer who has helped improve the community, whether by promoting equality, fairness, diversity or greater awareness of and access to legal rights. Currently she is a member of the Missouri Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness, working specifically to assure that juveniles receive all their rights in the judicial system, including seeking alternates court referral.
As a retired Administrative Judge of the Family Court of St. Louis County, she championed programs that sought to address domestic violence in our community, protecting victims and holding batterers accountable. She has served as a special prosecutor in the Domestic Violence Court and has received awards from advocacy groups, both locally and statewide.
She acted as a catalyst in creating Caring for Kids, an organization which meets the unmet needs of children involved in the child welfare or juvenile court system. Now in its 13th year this group, has provided hundreds of beds and other essential items that have kept children from being removed from their homes or allowed them to return safely to their rehabilitated parents. Block serves on the Federal Council of the Human Rights Campaign and PROMO’s Governor’s Council, both groups that advocate for LGBT rights and educate the community on diversity. She has been an active supporter of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and an outspoken columnist for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis’s magazine, “St. Louis Lawyer”, writing about legal issues that she finds compelling and essential to the administration of justice.