Susan Kelley-Claybrook Ortiz

Legal Writing Lecturer

Susan Kelley-Claybrook Ortiz taught legal writing and Law and Medicine as an adjunct in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2013, she returned to the Law School to assist Professor Matt Cordon with the LARC program. She also reunited with her former law partner, Professor Jim Wren, and joined the Practice Court instruction team as they increased the focus in PC on written advocacy, as well as oral advocacy. Claybrook Ortiz also works with law students on an individual basis as students prepare their cover letters and resumes in preparation for job interviews through the Career Development Office.

After graduating from Baylor Law in 1985, Claybrook Ortiz was a partner in a local firm, Haley & Olson, P.C., where she specialized in civil appellate law. After leaving private practice, she pursued graduate work at the Baylor University Institute of Church-State Studies and seminary studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. She has authored and co-authored several articles in legal publications and academic journals. 

Claybrook Ortiz and her husband, Joe, a member of the Waco Symphony orchestra, have three adult sons. The Ortizes live with two spoiled dogs—a standard poodle and a Jack Russell terrier.  The humans of the family are active members at Meadowbrook Baptist Church, where Claybrook Ortiz serves as a pianist/organist at the early service.