Susan Leach DeBlasio has received the prestigious Associate Justice Florence K. Murray Award from the Rhode Island Bar Association. This esteemed award is presented to an attorney or jurist who has shared his or her legal talents and time to influence women to pursue legal careers, opened doors for women attorneys, or advanced opportunities for women within the legal profession, and has been a recognized mentor for women in every sense of the word.
The award is named in honor of the first recipient, the Hon. Florence K. Murray, who, in a distinguished 56 years at the Bar, pioneered the causes of women in the law as the first woman attorney elected to the Rhode Island Senate, the first woman justice on the Superior Court, the first woman presiding justice of the Superior Court, and the first woman on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Susan is a past President of both the Rhode Island Bar Association and the Rhode Island Bar Foundation, and an esteemed member who continues to serve on the Bar’s House of Delegates and the Foundation’s Board of Directors. A Fellow of the American Bar Association, member of the Rhode Island Commission on Judicial Tenure and Discipline, and a past Chair of the Rhode Island Supreme Court Disciplinary Board, Susan has received many honors and recognitions, including the Bar Association’s Award of Merit, as well as the Ralph P. Semonoff Award for Professionalism, and is the first and only woman to receive that distinction.
Susan practices corporate, construction, and health care law at the firm’s offices in Providence and Boston and is a frequent pro bono speaker to legal, charitable, and community groups as well as a published author on legal and ethics topics.
The formal presentation of the award will take place at a later date.
