Susan J. Lutzker
Senior Partner
susan@lutzker.com (202) 408-7600 ext. 2

Susan J. Lutzker

Susan J. Lutzker

EDUCATION

Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. (1974)
Radcliffe College, Harvard University, A.B., cum laude (1970)

BAR ADMISSIONS

District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. Supreme Court

Combining an academic and personal background in the arts with a strong foundation in the nuts and bolts of complex legal transactions, Susan Lutzker specializes in copyright and other issues related to the use of the Internet and social media in both transactional matters and litigation.

Susan enjoys helping entrepreneurs and creative professionals develop and grow their businesses. Through involvement with the SelectUSA program of the U.S. Department of Commerce, she works with foreign investors interested in expanding into the U.S. market. She also uses her understanding of the nonprofit environment from her years at the National Trust for Historic Preservation to provide a full range of legal services to nonprofit clients, including helping them balance tax-exempt entity constraints with the need to create new revenue sources, manage risks and improve the quality of governance.

Susan has played a leadership role in INBLF (International Network of Boutique & Independent Law Firms), managing the organization’s participation in the SelectUSA Investment Summit (2016-2019) and in SelectUSA Road Shows in Brazil and the Nordic Region, and in forging relationships with Commercial Service staff in U.S. embassies around the world.

As a director and officer of the Cultural Treasures Foundation, she is instrumental in developing educational programs on topics of cultural importance and creating links with other cultural organizations in D.C. As Secretary and Board member of Young Artists of America, she helps oversee the innovative, diverse programming of a world-class theater organization.

Susan has a special interest in, and frequently writes about, the legal and practical challenges of preserving the cultural heritage of indigenous people around the world.

Prior to establishing Lutzker & Lutzker with her husband, Arnold Lutzker, Susan spent twenty years as in-house attorney at the headquarters of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a federally-chartered nonprofit organization charged with mobilizing and leading the private preservation movement in the United States. She represented the National Trust in helping to finance complex projects designed to rehabilitate historic communities and landmark properties and build cultural pride, often in blighted inner-city neighborhoods.

Her early legal practice was with Lane and Edson, P.C., where she worked on novel tax issues involving the syndication of low-income housing, a skill later used at the National Trust to support the Trust’s participation in rehabilitation projects utilizing the historic preservation and low-income tax credits.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

HONORS AND POSITIONS

  • Secretary and Board member, Young Artists of America
  • Recipient of the 2017 Alberto Lasheras Shine Memorial Award of INBLF given each year to the INBLF member whose efforts to strengthen and advance the organization most exemplify the spirit of this early architect of INBLF
  • Co-chair, SelectUSA Committee, INBLF
  • Secretary and Treasurer, Cultural Treasures Foundation
  • Pro bono legal advisor to Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington/Culture Capital
  • Pro bono legal advisor to Washington Art on Call Committee
  • Lecturer, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts workshop on starting a nonprofit business

PUBLICATIONS