About Susan Michele
Susan Michele Schaefer earned a B.A. in English from Indiana University Bloomington in 1984 and a J.D. from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1988. Those educational years anchored a profession that moved shortly from courtroom work to administrative adjudication. The degrees signaled a shift from reading texts to deciphering guidelines and procedures for people who needed help with federal benefit systems.
She began her legal career in private practice as a litigator at Emerick and Diggins, P.C., starting in 1988. Within some years she transitioned to public service on the Social Security Administration. By 1991 she used to be serving as a Hearing Office Director and Supervisory Lawyer, a position that positioned her inside the company’s day-to-day decisionmaking on disability claims. She later took on broader management responsibilities and in 2006 served as a Deputy Director and Branch Chief on the SSA, overseeing more than one elements of hearings administration.
In 2019 she based Cardea Law Group, LLC and serves as its proprietor. Her pass back into private practice followed many years of hands-on knowledge with federal advantage structures. She is approved by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to symbolize veterans before the VA. She additionally holds admissions in Alabama and Indiana and maintains memberships with the American Bar Association, the Alabama State Bar, and NOSSCR.
Colleagues and clients see a lawyer who is aware of how administrative offices function from the within. Her background consists of administrative proceedings, written appeals, and supervisory work that covered caseflow and adjudicative consistency. She has represented claimants in hearings before regulatory law judges and has handled appeals at a number of levels of the administrative process. The work attracts on procedural knowledge and an ability to explain complex determinations to humans unfamiliar with bureaucratic guidelines.
Schaefer combines the advocacy of her early trial practice with years of federal company knowledge. She has moved among roles that demanded both individual case attention and oversight of broader workplace operations. That combination informs how she prepares instances, manages time limits, and engages opposing advocates and agency staff.
She presently practices from Cardea Law Group, LLC where her work centers on veterans’ benefits and Social Security disability claims and appeals.
