Susan Shapiro (she/her) is a sociologist and a Research Professor Emerita at the American Bar Foundation. Shapiro works at the intersection of law and trust or fiduciary relationships, in which one acts on behalf of a vulnerable other—for example, medical decision making for patients who cannot speak for themselves. Her publications examine surrogate decision making; the role of law at life’s end; ethics; agency theory; libel and the regulation of truth in commerce, news, and social media; conflict of interest in law and other professions; securities fraud and regulation; and white-collar crime. Her current research investigates trust 2.0: law, social control, and new technologies of trust in the digital age.
She is the author, most recently, of Speaking for the Dying: Life-and-Death Decisions in Intensive Care (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Her previous books include Tangled Loyalties: Conflict of Interest in Legal Practice (University of Michigan Press, 2002), winner of the Distinguished Book Award of the Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association, and Wayward Capitalists: Target of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Yale University Press, 1987).
