Login | July 10, 2026
Longtime solo practitioner Susan Durr receives Senior Lawyer of the Year Award
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 10, 2026
It’s been more than 40 years since Summit County solo practitioner Susan Durr first entered the legal profession.
Since then, she’s served in a variety of capacities, including as a prosecutor and an acting judge.
Durr is also a former Akron Bar Association president who remains active in the organization and has given back to the community in numerous ways over the years.
While her resume and volunteer efforts align perfectly with the selection criteria for the Akron Bar Association’s Senior Lawyer of the Year Award, she said it simply wasn’t on her radar.
But her name was on the minds of those who are part of the organization’s Senior Lawyers Committee, who chose her as this year’s recipient.
“Susan has a tremendous reputation in the legal community,” said Senior Lawyers Committee Co-chair Larry Poulos, of counsel at Barry M. Ward Co. and Rischitelli & Poulos. “She’s a well-respected lawyer and she has done a lot for the bar association and the greater community.”
“It was such a lovely thing, but I definitely didn’t expect it,” Durr said. “When I got the call, I was like, ‘What?’
“I don’t think of myself as a senior lawyer, and I feel like there are so many amazing people out there who also deserve it,” said Durr, who was presented with the award on June 3 at Our Lady of the Cedars in Fairlawn.
“Susan has served on many committees of the Akron Bar Association over several decades,” said Senior Lawyers Committee Co-chair Donald Hicks. “She was the president of the bar association just after Covid.
“There is a quietness about Susan, but her eyes clearly convey that she is always thinking,” said Hicks, a solo practitioner in Summit County. “She has devoted her career to the betterment of our community, the legal profession and the Akron Bar Association.
“Self-effacing and humble in all that she does, Susan is entirely deserving of this award.”
Durr’s daughter Lauren Emery, a principal assistant attorney general in the Court of Claims Defense Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said it was good to see her mother get the recognition she deserved.
“She’s been in the practice of law my whole life,” Emery said. “She’s a great example of how to be a good lawyer and a good human. She has an unimpeachable reputation; she is a professional, ethical, kind and fair attorney.
“Unlike the way attorneys are portrayed on television, she is not flashy or egotistical, and her success has not changed who she is,” Emery said. “She is humble, empathetic, brilliant and authentic. I am so lucky to have her not only as a professional role model, but a personal one.”
In an email, retired Akron Bar Association Chief Executive Officer C. Allen Nichols said he could not have been happier when he learned of Durr’s selection.
“She was a tremendous president of the Akron Bar Association who brought a strong leadership hand to the role,” Nichols wrote. “She implemented many aspects of our new strategic plan, tackled different situations with a steady hand, and proved herself the consummate professional who cared about others more than herself.
“She is who I trusted to work with family members when they needed legal guidance because she demonstrates the care and compassion they needed at the time,” he added. “I am proud to call her a friend.”
Former Akron Bar Association President Maura Scanlon echoed similar sentiments.
“We met many years ago at an Akron Bar Law Day luncheon,” said Scanlon, an attorney at The Scanlon Group.
“During Susan’s term as president of the Akron Bar, I served in the role of immediate past president, which provided the opportunity for us to continue collaborating on several key initiatives for the Akron Bar.
“It was an absolute privilege to work with Susan as part of the leadership team at the Akron Bar,” Scanlon said. “We were always able to discuss the issues that came before the leadership and work together to create a fair resolution for the members of the Akron Bar.
“I feel fortunate to call Susan both a colleague and a friend,” Scanlon said.
“I think Susan is most deserving of the Senior Lawyer of the Year Award,” she said. “It is a wonderful reflection of all her hard work and the relationships she has built within the legal community and with her clients.”
Attorney Melissa Graham-Hurd went to law school with Durr and has since been opposing counsel on quite a few domestic relations cases that Durr handled during the first 10 years of her career.
“We became very good friends,” said Graham-Hurd, who owns Melissa Graham-Hurd & Associates. “Susan is honest to a fault. If she tells you something will be done, it will get done.
“It was always easy to settle our cases, and when we tried cases she was very professional.
“She has given back to both the Akron Bar and the OSBA,” she said. “There are very few committees or sections that Susan hasn’t been a part of at the Akron Bar Association, and as president she rolled up her sleeves and tackled the problems.
“She didn’t do it to receive accolades,” Graham-Hurd said. “For Susan, it’s always been about service to others, which is what makes her such a great choice for the Senior Lawyer of the Year Award.”
A native of Akron, Durr received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Akron.
While she didn’t intend to get her Juris Doctor when she began her undergraduate studies, she changed directions after taking a constitutional law class.
“At that time, my future husband was planning on going into psychology and my mother was getting her doctorate in psychology,” Durr said. “While I liked the psychology classes it wasn’t my calling.
“I knew I wanted to do something else,” she said. “I had done mock trial in high school, and I absolutely loved the constitutional law class, so I decided on law.”
Durr graduated from UA’s School of Law in 1983, opening Rufo, Hall & Durr with her two former moot court partners.
She also served as a part-time assistant criminal prosecutor in Cuyahoga Falls.
About a year after forming the firm, she left to take on a full-time position as a criminal prosecutor for the city of Cuyahoga Falls.
Then in 1988 Stow Law Director L. James Martin recruited her and attorney Rita Rochford (now a Summit County Juvenile Court magistrate) to become the criminal prosecutors for the city of Stow and to join his private law practice. The three formed the firm Martin, Rochford & Durr.
Two years later, she and Rochford left the prosecutor’s office.
Rochford eventually exited the firm, but Durr and Martin continued to practice together until the mid-1990s when she became a solo practitioner and moved her office to Cuyahoga Falls.
From 1996-2007, Durr served as an acting judge at Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court on numerous occasions and was also the city prosecutor for Streetsboro from 1999-2007.
While Durr initially had a general practice, today she focuses primarily on probate and estate planning.
“My probate and estate planning practice is a lot less stressful, and I don’t have the same drama that I did when I handled litigation,” she said. “Now I focus on helping people plan for and protect their futures and help them through the process when a loved one dies.”
For the past 25 years, she has shared office space with her husband Jeff, a licensed professional clinical counselor.
She also has a mediation practice that includes her son Andrew, a cognitive trainer and mediator. Andrew and his wife, Katy, own and operate Evolve Services in Cuyahoga Falls.
Durr is a longtime member of the Akron Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association and is a fellow of both the Akron Bar Foundation and the Ohio State Bar Foundation.
She’s completed three terms on the Akron Bar Association Board of Directors, including one term as secretary.
She also chaired the Akron Bar Association’s Family Law Section and is a co-founder of its Solo & Small Firm Practitioners Section.
She continues to co-chair the Akron Bar Association Professionalism Committee and is a member of the grievance investigative subcommittee and the Senior Lawyers Hospice Subcommittee.
She also served multiple terms on the Akron Bar Association Judicial Commission and is a former member of the OSBA Council of Delegates.
Outside of the legal profession, she is a former member of the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Summit, Medina & Stark Counties Inc. and was also on the board of the Cuyahoga Falls Schools Foundation & Alumni Association.
“I am not currently on any boards, as I am in the process of trying to cut back my work hours and outside commitments,” Durr said. “However, I see myself returning to some type of charitable work when I retire.
“As I look back on my life, I’m very happy with my choices,” Durr said. “The nice thing about the law is that it allows you to be flexible. There are a lot of practice areas, and it has allowed me to do different things.
“It let me be there for my children when they were growing up,” she said. “The Akron Bar Association has been an invaluable resource for me. I don’t think I could have run my solo practice without it.
“Now my practice allows me to take some time off and spend more time with my husband, kids and grandchildren,” Durr said. “It’s a nice way to finish my career.”