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Standing Orders (Updated 12/2024) OFFICE ADDRESS Judge Dlott biographical sketch (PDF)
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Judge Susan J. Dlott has presided in the Southern District of Ohio since she was appointed by President Clinton in 1995. In her thirty years on the bench, she is best known for achieving a collaborative settlement agreement between the Cincinnati Police Department and community groups following a period of civil unrest in Cincinnati, Ohio in the early 2000s. She says that the most challenging, but most important, duty of her position is sentencing criminal defendants. Judge Dlott is appreciated for carefully considering the seriousness of the crime and the individual circumstances of each defendant at the time of sentencing. As her judicial portrait reflects, she is well known for her love of Cavalier King Charles spaniels.
Judge Dlott was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. After receiving her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, she graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1973.
Upon graduation, she clerked for Judges Jack G. Day and Alvin J. Krenzler of the Ohio Court of Appeals in Cleveland, Ohio. She then served in the Southern District of Ohio as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1975–1979. Her duties included both civil and criminal litigation. She entered private practice with the Cincinnati law firm of Graydon, Head & Ritchey and, in 1981, she became its first female partner. During her sixteen-year tenure at the law firm, Judge Dlott litigated on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in high-profile civil and white-collar criminal cases. She garnered an acquittal for one client in the then-longest criminal trial held in Hamilton County, Ohio; was court-appointed lead counsel in a fifty-nine-defendant securities fraud case; and was court-appointed lead counsel for a subclass of plaintiffs in Bendectin litigation.
In 1995, she was appointed to the federal bench, which marked the beginning of the most fulfilling chapter of her legal career. Judge Dlott has served as a District Judge in the Southern District of Ohio since 1995, presiding primarily in Cincinnati. She was Chief Judge from 2009–2014. A summary of some of Judge Dlott’s noteworthy cases is separately listed.
Judge Dlott is a member of the Federal Bar Association, the Ohio Bar Association, and the Cincinnati Bar Association. She is past President of the Potter Stewart Inn of Court, was a life member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference prior to her appointment to the bench, and served as an instructor in the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School. Judge Dlott has served on numerous boards including the Dayton and Cincinnati Federal Bar Associations, the Ohio Building Authority, Cincinnati Arts Association, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the YWCA, Summer Work Experience in Law (SWEL), and Cincinnati Public Radio. She is an alumna of Leadership Cincinnati and a member of the Queen City Dog Training Club Inc.
Judge Dlott has received numerous awards for her career of service to the community and in the law. She is the recipient of the Service Award, Dayton Bar Association, 1975–1976; YWCA Career Woman of Achievement, 1996; Cincinnati Women Honoree, 1998; Downtown Residents’ Council Community Service Gift of Appreciation Award, 2000; the Cincinnati NAACP Fair and Courageous Award, 2006; and the YWCA Racial Justice Award, February 2008. Most recently, in 2023, the Cincinnati Bar Foundation presented Judge Dlott with the John L. Muething Lifetime Achievement in Law Award. The honor is presented for more than 50 years of exemplary service as a lawyer. Through her distinguished career, she has reflected the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession.