Levitate Legal and Consulting
Senior Director
Susan Kennedy is a partner at Levitate Legal and Consulting, where she is a legal and policy consultant, with almost 25 years of direct legislative experience, and a demonstrated history of working in the economic development, tax policy and compliance, business and education fields. She is a strong community professional with a degree from Emory University in Economics, and a Doctor of Law – JD focused in State Tax Law from Cumberland School of Law. Susan Kennedy is the former Public Policy and Government Relations Manager for the Alabama Education Association (AEA). Susan works with local governments, Fortune 100 companies and high-functioning non-profits to provide them with government relations and general consulting. She also works with various national organizations, including the National Education Association (NEA), and the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) on tax policy, but more importantly, she works with an array of publicly funded clients to preserve and create additional funding.
After graduating from Emory University with a degree in economics, Susan attended law school at the Cumberland School of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Cumberland Law Review and a published author. After graduation, Susan worked in private practice until she was appointed as Chief Counsel for the Department of Revenue in 1998. As Chief Tax Counsel she managed all major tax litigation, and was involved at all levels in the creation of tax policy and public funding research. While in public service, Susan was the primary lobbyist for the Department of Revenue and provided tax-related testimony to the full Alabama House and Senate in joint sessions and to countless legislative committees. After leaving public service with the Department of Revenue, Susan founded the law firm of Slate Kennedy LLC, where she and her partners represented all types of clients including medium to large corporate clients, various agencies of the State of Alabama, both the University of Alabama and Auburn University, and presided over tax litigation involving over a billion dollars in potential corporate tax refunds.
Susan and her husband Randal have been married for over 30 years. They have one daughter, Grace, who is a former professional banjo player and is now a surgical resident M.D at Columbia University in NYC, and one niece that they raised as a daughter, CarolAnne, who is a French/Political Science graduate from College of Charleston working as a Congressional Intern in Washington D.C.