Susan M. Harrelson was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from the Head-Royce School in Oakland, and received a Bachelor of Arts in History, with honors, from the University of California at Berkeley.. After a successful 15-years working in occupational safety and risk management with a wood truss manufacturer in Las Vegas, Nevada, she enrolled as a member of the charter class of the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Ms. Harrelson received her Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from the Boyd School of Law in 2002. She was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada in 2002, and the State Bar of California in 2003. Practicing primarily in insurance defense and insurance litigation, she successfully represented the Appellant in the recent case of St. Paul Fire v. Employers Ins. Co. of Nev., 122 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 85 (November 9, 2006), which established the validity in Nevada of limitations and exclusions in the UM/UIM policy that restrict payments for the benefit of a workers’ compensation insurer. She is a member of the Clark County Bar Association.