Suzanne M. McSorley

Sue concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution, counseling clients in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, construction, insurance and health care industries, with a particular emphasis on construction matters. In addition, she has extensive experience drafting and negotiating contracts and has years of experience as a neutral as a mediator or an arbitrator. Sue also has represented lawyers in connection with ethics-related issues for more than 20 years.

She has represented owners (hospital and health care systems, pharmaceutical manufacturers, research universities, real estate developers and homeowners), design professionals and contractors in litigation and other dispute resolution proceedings and processes in connection with every type of construction-related claim including defect claims, liens, and delay and interference claims.

Sue also devotes a substantial part of her practice to representing parties, especially owners, in negotiating and drafting agreements of all types relating to construction projects. She is familiar with most of the standard form agreements in use in the industry, in particular, the form agreements published by the AIA and the EJCDC, and the Consensus DOCS and has provided many clients with advice concerning modification of form agreements to satisfy the client’s particular needs. She also has experience in negotiating agreements related to projects to be delivered on an IPD basis, and with resolving disputes arising in the context of IPD projects.

In addition, Sue has significant experience preparing project-specific agreements. She has assisted multiple owner clients in developing master agreements with preferred construction and design professionals for design, construction and design build services. She also has substantial experience negotiating and drafting project-specific manuscript agreements for the design and construction of many types of projects including pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, hospitals, research laboratories, educational facilities and warehousing and distributions facilities, and for the procurement of equipment and manufactured modules of such facilities.

Since 1997, Sue has served as a mediation neutral, having assisted parties in more than a thousand matters to resolve disputes outside of the litigation process; she is also an arbitrator on the commercial and construction industry panels of arbitrators maintained by the American Arbitration Association. She has received certificates from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and the Center for Mediation in Law. She is also a charter member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, an invitation-only professional association for mediators and arbitrators who are well established as trusted neutrals in the legal community.

Sue received the 2021 Richard Jeydel Award for Excellence in ADR conferred by the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court and the 2005 James B. Boskey ADR Practitioner of the Year Award conferred by the New Jersey State Bar Association for her contributions to advance the cause of mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution in New Jersey. In addition, in 2007 she was named a “Legend of ADR,” also by the New Jersey State Bar Association. As published in New Jersey Monthlymagazine, Sue has been recognized as a New Jersey Super Lawyer by being selected by her peers as among the top 5 percent of lawyers in the state.

In recognition of her work in support of the wider community, the Mercer County Commission on Abused, Neglected and Missing Children conferred its Cherish the Children Award on Sue in 2000 for efforts that created and promoted peer mediation and dispute resolution programs in public schools in the county. In 2019, Legal Services of New Jersey conferred its prestigious William J. Brennan Citation for Justice Award on her for her significant contributions to the cause of equal justice.

Finally, Sue has represented and counseled attorneys in connection with legal ethics questions and proceedings for many years. She has served on both the New Jersey Supreme Court Ethics Committee (District VII) and on the New Jersey Supreme Court Fee Arbitration Committee (District VII).

Sue started her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren W. Eginton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Affiliations

• New Jersey Supreme Court
  • Committee on Complementary Dispute Resolution, 2002-2012
  • Advisory Committee on Mediator Standards, 2006-2012
• American Bar Association
  • Forum Committee on Construction Law, 1992-Present
  • Division 12 (Owners and Lenders) Steering Committee, 2009-2021, Chair, and Past Chair 2017-2021
• American Bar Association, 1980-Present
  • Litigation Section
  • Dispute Resolution Section
• New Jersey State Bar Association
  • Dispute Resolution Section,1997-Present, Chair and Chair-Elect, 2000-2002; Chair-Elect, 2000-2001; Director, 1997-2003, 2013-2017
  • Litigation Section
  • Construction Law Section
• Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution, President and Immediate Past President, 2010-2014
  • Executive Committee, 2008-Present
• National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, 2013-Present
• New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators
• Mercer County Bar Association, Former Trustee
• Mercer County Bar Foundation, Past Trustee and President
• Supreme Court of New Jersey, District VII Fee Arbitration Committee, 1999-2003
• Supreme Court of New Jersey, District VII Ethics Committee, 1991-1994
• Columbia Law School Alumni Association
• Columbia Law School Association of New Jersey, Trustee and Treasurer, 1996-1999; Vice President
• Princeton Internships in Civic Service, Board Member, 2009-Present

Recognition

• Received the Richard Jeydel Award for excellence in ADR from the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court, 2021
• Recipient of the William J. Brennan Award given by Legal Services of New Jersey, 2019
• Received the Legend of ADR Award in 2007 and was named the James B. Boskey ADR Practitioner of the Year in 2005 by the New Jersey State Bar Association
• Listed as a Super Lawyer, Construction Litigation, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Business Litigation, New Jersey, 2006-2009, 2011
• Received the Cherish the Children Award from the Mercer County Commission on Abused, Neglected and Missing Children, 2000