A highly respected family law attorney known for her in-depth analysis and legal research skills, for over 26 years, Suzanne has gradually developed a family law practice, specializing in handling contentious litigation matters and out of court negotiated settlement agreements. Her reputation for thoroughness has characterized her approach to working with her clients and her colleagues, who are familiar with her general non-confrontational style and modus operandi when interacting or negotiating with her colleagues and with opposing counsel. Suzanne is also often sought out for her extensive knowledge of case law combined with the breadth and range of her skills as an experienced litigation attorney.

Suzanne has represented clients, as instructing attorney or as co-counsel, in a number of matters from their inception in the Supreme Court right up to the Court of Appeal. The judgments have led to a body of case law and landmark judgments which have considered the legal principles governing the litigation of cross-jurisdictional issues in international parental abduction or wrongful retention involving peremptory return of children cases, as well as relocation issues in private international family law cases relating to custody disputes.   

 Suzanne has significant knowledge of specialized aspects of family law matters under Jamaican law and is sought after to provide legal opinions and advice on Jamaican law relating to the enforcement of orders made in different jurisdictions concerning the division of matrimonial and spousal assets, as well as marital relationships and children. Suzanne has also written and co-authored with Meg Gibson-Henlin Q.C., the controversial Article, Flight or Right? Custody and Access in International Child Abduction Cases: Emerging Issues in Jamaica, published in the West Indian Law Journal. 

She presently has her own law practice as a sole private practitioner operating as, The Law Offices of Suzanne Risden-Foster, where she often collaborates in association and in consultation with other counsel or law firms, as a resource attorney and instructing counsel who provides research skills and other legal support to the firm or attorney on record, primarily in the specialized area of family law litigation. Suzanne’s practice areas, include, inter alia, divorce proceedings, contested claims for division of spousal property and assets, as well as adversarial proceedings for spousal and child maintenance, and disputes regarding custody of, and access to children, injunctive relief, habeas corpus proceedings. Her practice is also structured to focus increasingly on non-contentious matters between spouses such as the preparation of consensual agreements, including both prenuptial and postnuptial agreements arrived at through negotiation with opposing counsel, or through a mediated settlement process.

Since 1997 until present, Suzanne has been a member of the Jamaican Bar Association and she also served for three years on the Bar Council. Suzanne was for many years an active member of the Association’s Family Law Sub-Committee. She has presented various legal research papers on family law and civil litigation at Continuing Legal Education seminars, in the years prior to Continuing Legal and Professional Education becoming mandatory. 

Since October 2020, Suzanne has returned to serve again on the Jamaican Bar Association’s Family Law Sub-Committee.  Notably, Suzanne was integrally involved in the review process as an active participant in the Committee’s critical work of the preliminary draft Bills for The Property (Rights of Spouses) Act, 2006 which on its passage into law and coming into force on 1^st April 2006, has been viewed in legal circles in Jamaica and the wider Commonwealth Caribbean, as a revolutionary piece of legislation which heralded far reaching changes to the law governing division of assets and property between spouses. She was appointed as the Committee’s representative to sit on a special committee appointed by the then government mandated to establish the policy blueprint for the Office of the Children’s Advocate established under The Child Care and Protection Act.  

As Associate Tutor in Family Law at the Norman Manley Law School (2010-2015), Suzanne taught Family Law to Year 1 students.

As a multi-faceted professional, Suzanne is also an Honours graduate of the Jamaica School of Art [1995] (now known as the Edna Manley School for the Visual & Performing Arts), where she studied Fine Arts & Textile Design and later obtained her Diploma in Textiles (Hons). After graduating from the Jamaica School of Art, Suzanne enjoyed a career in the Arts and Product Design as a Project Administrator working with Things Jamaican, and subsequently as an artist in her own right operating a successful T-Shirt business, ‘Jammin T’s.’ Suzanne has exhibited her Textile design work in Manhattan, New York at the Jacob Javits Center.  Her batik and hand screen printed textile products and pieces have been shown in Jamaica at various hotel and villa resorts such as the exclusive Round Hill Hotel and Villas.  

Suzanne is the proud mother of two adult children – Dr. Luke Foster and Miss Rachel Foster and has in the past actively supported her alma mater, St. Andrew High School for Girls.