Susan L. Sakmar is licensed to practice law in California and has over 20 years experience working in a variety of legal, corporate, nonprofit, and academic environments. She began her professional career as an accountant for Chevron Corporation in San Francisco, California and left Chevron to pursue a law career. Prior to teaching, she was an attorney in the commercial litigation department of a major San Francisco firm where she represented clients in a variety of complex litigation cases. She has also served on a number of nonprofit environmental boards including Board Chair for the Jane Goodall Institute, founded by world-renowned chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall.
She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Houston Law Center where she teaches a course on Shale Gas & LNG. She also consults on various aspects of global gas markets and is working on a number of training projects related to LNG as well as several projects focused on the environmental and regulatory issues for global shale gas development. She holds an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, a J.D., cum laude, from the University of San Francisco School of Law, San Francisco, CA., and a business degree (B.Sc.) from the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.
Her recent book, Energy for the 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), was chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2014 by Choice Magazine, a widely read publication by academic librarians. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the entire LNG value chain and analyzes the critical role LNG will play in the 21st century as the "glue" linking global gas markets.