Michael Sussman has been fighting for social justice and individual freedoms for more than 45 years.

As a civil rights lawyer, he has represented union members, police officers, teachers, veterans, children, parents and those affected by discrimination in all its forms.

As an advocate, he understands that we need both responsible government and grassroots activism to create the future we want to see.

As County Executive, he will fight with experience, knowledge, and integrity for an Orange County we deserve.

After graduating with Honors from Harvard Law School in 1978, Sussman joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as a Trial Attorney. In succeeding years, he was awarded medals for Outstanding Service to the Department, as he worked to eradicate racial segregation and improve educational quality in Cleveland, Chicago, Charleston, South Carolina; as well as to fight housing segregation in Mobile, Alabama and Birmingham, Michigan.

When the Reagan Administration started minimizing civil rights cases nationwide, Sussman knew he needed to step up, and joined the NAACP National Office as Assistant General Counsel.  Sussman won the first case against partisan gerrymandering (Davis v. Bandemer) and litigated major voting rights cases in Delaware, Virginia, Indiana and New York.

Most critically, he became the NAACP’s legal counsel in the pioneering Yonkers’ case on which he worked for 26 years, winning $300,000,000 from the State of New York to improve Yonkers’ schools and address the vestiges of discrimination and segregation and, more than $100,000,000 from HUD, the State of New York and the City to provide housing opportunities for racial minorities outside a one square mile area of the City. Concurrently, Sussman represented the Duval County Branch of the NAACP, re-shaping schools in Jacksonville, Florida and ending decades of racial segregation. Through 2007, he continued representing the Yonkers’ NAACP and other NAACP Branches throughout the United States in major civil rights cases involving voting rights, employment discrimination, housing and school segregation.

In January 1986, Sussman and his late father, Morton J., opened Sussman & Sussman at 30 South Broadway in Yonkers. After Morton retired, Sussman relocated his firm to Goshen in 1991, having started a family in Orange County. 

Quickly, his firm started representing Orange Environment in its struggle to stop the County of Orange from opening a $57,000,000 landfill adjacent to the Wallkill River, on the principal aquifer feeding the southern part of our County and on top of wetlands. This fight lasted for eight years; the County never opened the landfill and was forced to expedite its clean-up of the old land-fill, which was leaking leachate into the Wallkill River.

Sussman also branched out into fighting religious oppression, representing the minority in Kiryas Joel, a religious community then in the Town of Monroe. Kiryas Joel community leaders pressured the state government to create a public school district, succeeding on the fifth try. However, when Joseph Waldman sought to run for the School Board, the main congregation expelled his seven children from school in mid-year. With no place to educate his children, Mr. Waldman brought suit. Sussman convinced the state courts to intervene in an unprecedented manner, forcing a private religious school to admit the children. So began twenty years of litigation to bring Kiryas Joel into compliance with the state and federal constitutions.  The book American Shtetl (2023) outlines Sussman’s lengthy efforts to assure religious liberty and protect the boundaries between church and state.

Sussman has litigated numerous cases on behalf of people injured by police misconduct and police abuse. At the same time, he has represented many police officers and other civil service employees whose rights have been ignored by local and state governments, and has won pioneering legal victories in areas such as domestic violence and the rights of motorists not to cooperate with probing and unjustified police interrogations.

Sussman has been deeply involved in other litigation in Orange County, including saving Valley View — the senior housing facility and rehabilitation center — from closure, as well as forcing the county to fairly redistrict after the 2010 census, insuring that all members of the county legislature, regardless of political party, have representation against efforts to sue them for exposing corruption and fighting for fair working conditions and civil rights for all county employees.

In 1989, a year after moving to the Town of Chester from the Town of Wawayanda where he had settled in 1985, Sussman was elected to the Town Board. He served as Deputy Supervisor between 1990 and 1993, fighting for a new Town ethics law, proper work-force housing and the preservation of critical open space. 

In early 2002, Sussman founded the Democratic Alliance to promote progressive public policy.  He sponsored more than 10 anti-war demonstrations during the American invasion into Iraq and DA advocated for improved health insurance coverage for all Americans. DA also engaged in intensive voter registration drives and advocated for the inclusion of racial minorities in Orange County’s workforce. 

In 2009, Sussman created a series of Empowering Centers in the mid-Hudson Valley, providing space for community groups and individuals to engage in constructive activities. For a decade, Sussman funded such centers in Port Jervis, Liberty, Ellenville and Newburgh.  

In 2009, Sussman co-founded PULSES, an organization of parents and educators to ensure that those with special needs obtain proper programs and placements from school districts. PULSES worked directly with hundreds of parents, advocating both in individual cases and more systemically, as needed.

In 2018, Sussman founded People Against Racism in Schools (PARIS) to support students, parents and staff who were then experiencing considerable bias in area schools. PARIS members attended school board meetings and accompanied parents and students to meetings to ensure fair treatment.

In late January 2025, Sussman founded Orange County Cares, which is studying the impact of Trump policies on our county and its residents and presenting its findings at a series of public forums.