Profiles
Susan Bysiewicz ’86
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s Connecticut’s lieutenant governor, Susan Bysiewicz presides over the state Senate, serves as acting governor as needed, and is charged with overseeing preparations for the 2020 census, among other official duties. The Democrat also leads the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls. She and running mate Gov. Ned Lamont launched the council shortly after they were inaugurated in early January. Made up of legislators and leaders from around the state, the council is charged with providing a coordinated state response to issues that could affect women, girls, and their families. Its focus includes everything from eradicating potential discrimination in policies and programs and encouraging women’s empowerment and advancement through education to workforce equity and entrepreneurship, leadership, and facilitating their health and safety, reflecting themes the executive team heard from hundreds of individuals and organizations they consulted during their transition period. While it’s just one of her varied responsibilities as lieutenant governor, the council is close to the heart of Bysiewicz, who has divided her career between the practice of business law and pub52 Duke Law Magazine • Fall 2019
lic service. Before taking office in January she was a partner at Pastore & Dailey; prior to that she served 12 years (three terms) as Connecticut’s secretary of the state, six years in the state legislature, and several years as an associate at the law firms of White and Case in New York and Robinson and Cole in Hartford, Conn. Not only has she made advancing opportunities for women central, she says, to every position she’s held, but she found models for her own career interests in those of two path-breaking women: Connecticut Gov. Ella Grasso, the first woman elected to lead a state; and her mother, Shirley Raissi Bysiewicz, the first tenured female law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “Women’s issues are economic issues, and if you uplift women and girls, you’ll be uplifting families,” Bysiewicz says in an interview. “When I was secretary of the state, I was the state’s chief business registrar. We started a small business unit where we particularly tried to help women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses. I had the opportunity in that office to help thousands of people start businesses and grow them. And as Gov. Lamont can tell you, I am always advocating for competent women and for diversity
