The famed, feared and revered trial lawyer Steve Susman remains hospitalized and unconscious after a freak bicycle accident April 22. He is in the neuro-intensive care unit at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center in Houston.
Susman, 79, the force and founder of Houston-based Susman Godfrey, for years has been passionate about bicycling, having completed countless long distance rides around the U.S. and in Europe, including the two-day, 150-mile trek from Houston to Austin in the Bike MS: Texas MS 150, raising money for multiple sclerosis research.
Susman was on a morning ride in the Old Braeswood area of Houston eight days ago with four other lawyers from the firm. His front wheel got caught in an expansion joint in the concrete roadway, locking the wheel and throwing Susman over the handlebars, says Neal S. Manne, Susman Godfrey’s managing partner.
“It was a beautiful day and he was biking with some lawyers from our firm, virtually an everyday thing for him,” says Manne. “He rode more days of the week than not.”
No other vehicle or bike was involved in the accident, says Manne, and the scene was not far from the hospital.
“He’s unconscious, but there are some promising signs,” Manne says. “He’s got movement on both sides of his body, to the extent there’s some movement of arms and legs on both sides. That’s a good thing when you have a brain injury, obviously.”
Susman lives in both Houston and New York City, working back and forth between the firm’s offices in those cities. He has been a primal influence in the movement of commercial litigators working on contingency – more risk, more money.
“He works hard, he rides hard and he tries cases hard,” says Tom Susman, Steve’s brother, who lives in Washington, D.C. and is strategic adviser to the American Bar Association’s Governmental Affairs Office, and its former director. The Friday before the accident the two brothers and their wives had a cocktail party via Zoom, “And all he talked about is biking. He loves it.”
That passion extends to the point of getting a Peloton stationary bike and subscription for online workouts at home with trainers and live-streaming classes, says Tom, who has joined his brother on the Houston-to-Austin rides a couple of times, and on rides near Steve’s place in Napa Valley, Calif.
“Everything Steve does is competitive,” says Terry W. Oxford, a Susman Godfrey partner who says he has “worked for” Susman longer than any other lawyer there. They’d run marathons together in the late 1970s and early 80s, and apparently Susman moved to cycling on Oxford’s example.
Their families have taken several cycling trips together in Europe, with multiple daily routes provided by outfitters. “Steve always insists on the longer one,” Oxford says, including one in France for 62 miles.
Susman has ridden in the Texas MS 150 seven times, beginning in 2011, when he joined an increasingly large group from the firm involved in the fundraiser for research. He brought in top dollar three years in a row, including $650,000 in 2015.
He planned to ride again this year in the MS 150, which had been scheduled for May 2-3 but was postponed and reset for Sept. 26-27.