TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jan 6, 2020

After more than 25 years of service, Tennessee’s longest serving state appellate judge, Charles D. Susano Jr., has announced he will retire from the bench effective April 30, the Administrative Office of the Courts announced today. Susano, a lifelong Knoxvillian, earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1963. After graduating, he served in the inaugural group of law clerks to work for the Tennessee Supreme Court. He then served more than 30 years as a partner with Bernstein, Susano & Stair, and later with Susano, Sheppeard, Giordano & Swanson. In March 1994, Gov. Ned Ray McWherter appointed him to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Since then, Judge Susano has served as presiding judge of the court and has authored well over 1,000 opinions. Among his many accolades, Judge Susano received the TBA’s Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award in 2017.