Meet the lawyer who’s suing to keep trans women in women’s sports

In a year when being trans people in sports where seen a radioactive, some governing bodies and leagues took a number of steps to bar trans women from female sports.

However, a former college soccer player-turned-lawyer named Susan Cirilli decided to tie on her boots and hit the legal pitch.

The New York-based attorney who has handled contracts, dealt with employment issues and helped get deals done is now focusing on a group of discrimination suits involving transgender women in sports fighting for their place on the field.

In November her effort got additional firepower. She moved her practice to Spector Gadon Rosen & Vinci, where she works alongside esteemed civil rights lawyer Alan Epstein.

“My practice is centered around women in sports,” Cirilli said. “I’ve represented a graduate female student athlete facing discrimination in the classroom, a college coach getting retaliated against for advocating for player safety, and a college coach fighting for equal pay.

Get off the sidelines and into the game

Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“Representing transgender women in sports fits squarely in my practice.”  

That ethos powers a group of lawsuits filed throughout this year w.here transgender women seeking to play in women’s sports were not allowed due to policies that restrict the participation of trans athletes.

Related

These 47 trans athletes have competed openly in college sports. Some have won, others have not.
Trans college athletes have been playing while out on men’s and women’s teams for years. Here are nearly 50 of them.

The bulk of the cases involve collegiate student-athletes. Cirilli is representing former Rochester Institute of Technology track athlete and 2024 NCAA All-American Sadie Schreiner in suits against Princeton University, SUNY-Geneseo and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for not allowing her to run unattached at meets last year.

A different suit involves a former track team captain at Swarthmore College, Evelyn Parts, who was banned from participation due to the NCAA barring trans women from female sports.

The other suits could set some serious precedent. One involves fencer Dinah Yukich, who is suing USA Fencing and the United States Olympics and Paralympics Committee over regulations barring her from women’s fending. The other involves a Brooklyn-based recreational tennis player in Cammie Woodman, who was disqualified from a league that said she was ineligible.

“My practice is women’s sports, so I’m representing transgender women, too.” she said. “This isn’t new. Women have always have to fight for sponsorships, for rights and all that. Everybody has their role and my role is in the law.”

Susan Cirilli trades in cleats for courtrooms

The love of sports came early for Cirilli. Growing up in Wallingford, Pa., sports was a part of life from childhood.

“Sports was everything, especially where I grew up,” she said. “I’m one of four, three girls and a boy, and all the girls played Division I soccer. All the kids on my street, we all played sports. We would go to the pool, we were on the swim team, and I ran track.

“Growing up on Palmer’s Lane we played with the boys. Roller hockey, football, basketball and we’d play almost every day. We’d compete.”

As a 12-year-old, a big event made a big impact. It was 1999. Women’s World Cup. Team USA captivated the country all the way to a championship shootout against China.

“I remember my cousin called during the shootout, and we were like, why is he calling? Does he know what’s on,” she remembered. “That team? They were everything.”

After high school, Cirilli joined an older sister on the pitch at the University of Vermont. In her junior year Cirilli was a team captain and known for being a pesky midfielder.

She applied that same scrap to earning a law degree from Catholic University in 2012, but even as she ascended in her profession sports never went away. She pushed herself to qualify for the Boston Marathon and three Ironman finishes, including a personal-best finish in 11 hours.

In many ways she feels she is as much a coach as a litigator, and inspirations of the good coaches she had as an athlete is what she wants to bring to a negotiating table or in the courtroom.

“I had a great coach in college in Kerry Dziczkaniec. My dad, one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. I understand the value of a really good coach and how much sport can help people. I feel like if you can have a little bit of an impact, it’s a win.”

In the earlier years of her career she aimed toward employment law, but the love and the memories brought her back to sports. In 2020, she pivoted back to sports law, particularly collegiate sports.

Since that pivot, she’s extended her range. Earlier this year she became a certified player agent for both the WNBA and PWHL, in addition to taking on the trans-inclusion issue as women’s sports are growing in exposure and financial impact.

To Cirilli, taking these cases are all about standing up for and growing women’s sports as a whole.

“Sports have always been an arena for civil rights. From the Boston Marathon and Kathrine Switzer, Jackie Robinson, you have Billie Jean King. Sports has always been an arena where society is kind of reflected. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of the state laws and making sure that we’re advocating.”

Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.

The post Meet the lawyer who’s suing to keep trans women in women’s sports appeared first on Outsports.