In The News

Susan Petersen, named partner of Petersen & Petersen, is an elected trial lawyer member of both the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and the International Society of Barristers (ISOB). She serves on the Board of Directors of ISOB and as its National Membership Co-Chair—leadership positions that reflect her standing among the nation’s top trial advocates.

These organizations are non-partisan, comprised of trial lawyers across all practices representing plaintiffs and defendants, both public and private.  ABOTA and ISOB represent the best of the best: trial lawyers from across the nation united by their commitment to excellence in advocacy and their oath to uphold the Constitution. 

When you dedicate your entire career to upholding the mandates of the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions, silence is not an option.

The ISOB Executive Committee has adopted the following statement from ABOTA regarding the events in Minnesota. We stand with them.

ABOTA Calls for Investigation into the ICE Shootings and Withdrawal of Federal Agents in Minnesota

January 26, 2026

In the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence, the shootings in Minneapolis test our nation’s commitment to the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. On January 7, Renee Nicole Good was protesting the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in her neighborhood when she was fatally shot by a masked agent. 

On January 24, Alex Jeffrey Pretti was attending a protest rally when he was fatally shot by an ICE agent. These deaths strike at the core of our constitutional order. The rights to free speech and peaceful assembly lie at the heart of a functioning democracy, where the Rule of Law protects ordinary citizens who participate in the checks and balances of power. Those rights are imperiled when people fear that exercising their voice may cost them their lives.

The First Amendment stands at the very beginning of the Bill of Rights because it safeguards every other liberty that follows. It provides a lawful means to confront the precise danger now before us: the use of armed authority to suppress peaceful dissent. When the government responds to protests with excessive lethal force, it does not merely violate the First Amendment; it threatens to extinguish all constitutional rights. ABOTA’s dedication to the Seventh Amendment and judicial independence is meaningless without a robust Rule of Law that restrains the arbitrary use of state power.

For this reason, none of us can remain silent while people are afraid to leave their homes and afraid to encounter armed agents acting under color of law in their own streets. As attorneys and officers of the court, we are bound by oath and conscience to defend the Constitution, to protect the powerless, and to insist that no one is above the law.

Safety and security are not achieved by dehumanizing the dead through false accusations, by normalizing arbitrary arrest and abduction, or by demanding silence in the face of excessive violence against ordinary citizens. These offenses against citizens cannot be obscured by censorship or justified by rhetoric; they must be confronted openly, investigated lawfully, and addressed justly.

To preserve our democracy, ABOTA petitions all branches to order a fair and independent investigation into these shootings, withdraw federal agents from Minnesota, and reaffirm constitutional accountability under the Rule of Law.

When plaintiff and defense lawyers—advocates who face each other in courtrooms every day—speak with one voice on constitutional principles, we must all listen.

In less than two weeks, the lawyers of Petersen & Petersen will stand before the Ohio Supreme Court to argue to protect a citizen’s constitutional rights.  They do so knowing that every chip away at our constitutional protections is one step closer to losing them all.

We will not be silent. 🔊