Sue Provenzano
Assistant Professor of Law- Education
J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School
B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Specializations
Civil Procedure
Evidence
Federal Courts
- Biography
Sue Provenzano, assistant professor of law, joined the Georgia State University College of Law faculty in Fall 2022. In Spring 2024, Professor Provenzano received the David J. Maleski Award for Teaching Excellence. Before joining the College of Law, she taught at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where she was the grateful recipient of numerous teaching awards, including Northwestern Law’s highest teaching honor, the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence.
Professor Provenzano’s research applies philosophical, linguistic and rhetorical theories of meaning across the law in pursuit of what she terms “unsolved interpretive mysteries.” Her work has appeared in several law reviews, including the Florida Law Review, the Indiana Law Journal and the Northwestern University Law Review Online. Professor Provenzano has contributed to multiple university press volumes and speaks on the topics of civil procedure, evidence, and law, philosophy and language.
Both before and during her life as an academic, Professor Provenzano has enjoyed writing United States Supreme Court merits briefs, amicus briefs and petitions for certiorari. She has tackled interpretive issues involving the insanity defense, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the False Claims Act and the Copyright Act.
Before she entered law teaching, Professor Provenzano practiced civil litigation at the Chicago law firms of Kirkland & Ellis and Mayer Brown. She also clerked for the Honorable Ruben Castillo, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Professor Provenzano graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she served as the editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Law Review.
- Publications
Books
Susan Provenzano, et al., Advanced Appellate Advocacy (Aspen Publishers 2016).
Book Chapters
Susan E. Provenzano & Kathryn M. Stanchi, Rhetoric and Legal Argumentation, in Research Handbook on Legal Argumentation (Luis Duarte d’Almeida et al., eds., forthcoming 2025).
Brian N. Larson & Susan E. Provenzano, Cicero: Legal Stases and the Supreme Court, in Classical Rhetoric & Contemporary Law: A Critical Reader (Francis J. Mootz, III, et al., eds., 2024).
Susan E. Provenzano, Justice Kennedy, Natural Liberty, and Classical Stasis Theory: Advancing Free Speech with Rhetorical Knowledge and Interpretive Argumentation, in The Rhetoric of Judging Well: The Conflicted Legacy of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (David A. Frank & Francis J. Mootz, III, eds., 2023).
Articles
Susan E. Provenzano, Questioning Hearsay’s Formalism, 76 Fla. L. Rev. 913 (2024).
Susan E. Provenzano, Can Speech Act Theory Save Notice Pleading?, 96 Ind. L.J. 1157 (2021).