Susan Guthrie is one of the nation’s leading voices on the future of mediation, dispute resolution, and professional practice development. An attorney, mediator, speaker, consultant, and bestselling author, Susan has spent more than 35 years helping individuals, organizations, and professionals navigate conflict and build more effective Practices.
A Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan is the recipient of the L. Randolph Lowry Award, presented by the Southern California Mediation Association in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of mediation and dispute resolution.
Through her consulting, coaching, speaking, and writing, Susan now focuses on helping legal and dispute resolution professionals intentionally design practices that are more profitable, sustainable, and personally fulfilling. She is the creator of Intentional Practice Design™, a practical framework for building practices that align with a professional’s values, goals, and vision for the future.
Susan is the author of the Practice Playbook Series, including The Thought Leadership Playbook, The Flat Fee Playbook, and the recently released The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide to Intentional Practice Design for Lawyers and Dispute Resolution Professionals. Her forthcoming book, Future Proof: Designing a Legal or ADR Practice for the AI Era, will be published by ABA Publishing in 2027.
She is also the host of two internationally recognized podcasts. The Practice Playbook Podcast helps lawyers, mediators, and other professionals build practices by design rather than by default, while Divorce & Beyond®, with more than five million downloads, ranks among the top one percent of podcasts worldwide.
Susan’s programs combine decades of professional experience with a forward-looking perspective on the future of mediation, client experience, artificial intelligence, and practice innovation. She is passionate about helping professionals prepare not only for where the profession has been, but for where it is going.