Corporate Lawyer Susan Posen, Who Helped Son Zac Build Fashion Brand, Dies at 80

Corporate attorney and entrepreneur Susan Posen ’78, a member of Brooklyn Law School’s Women’s Leadership Circle who helped her son, fashion designer phenom Zac Posen, build his namesake company, died Thursday. She was 80.  

It was the latest chapter in a wide-ranging career when Susan Posen teamed up with Zac, then age 21, and his sister Alexandra to bootstrap and launch his new fashion enterprise from the family’s loft in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.  

As Posen recalled in an interview with Brooklyn Law Notes in 2012, Zac asked for her help in the business after studying womenswear design in London. "I said yes, of course. I really thought this would just entail looking over a few agreements. Instead, it turned into an incredible journey," she said. The label quickly became a success, helped along by an outside-the-box approach and a celebrity following. 

An Entrepreneurial Streak 

The entrepreneurial turn was not Susan Posen’s first, and the creative enterprise was also no surprise. Alongside her artist husband of more than 60 years, Stephen, "Susan Posen created an arts-centric and bohemian environment for their family to embrace creativity, playfulness and a do-it-ness to realize their ideas," reports the London Tribune.  

After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Posen worked in publishing and helped Helen Gurley Brown launch the public relations campaign for Jacqueline Susann’s bestselling 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls, according to a report in Women’s Wear Daily. She also sewed the pieces of cloth that her husband incorporated into his paintings and started a craft belt business with artist Chuck Close’s wife, Leslie. One of their clients was designer Betsey Johnson, who sold the belts at her first store, Betsey Bunky Nini. 

As a young mom in the 1970s, however, Posen had become involved in the feminist movement and decided it was time to establish a more stable career. She set her sights on becoming a lawyer and enrolled at Brooklyn Law School, where she excelled, serving as managing editor of the Brooklyn Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Honor Society.  

Turning to Corporate Law 

From 1978 to 2000, Susan worked at Stroock & Stroock and Lavan as a mergers and acquisitions attorney. At the same time, she launched Little Red School House for children with learning disabilities, including her son, who had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. She also worked briefly at Cablevision before Stroock coaxed her back. She brought Cablevision with her as a client, and when the entertainment giant decided to go public, it wanted Posen, who was still an associate at the time, to handle the initial public offering. She did, and by 1986 had become a partner at the firm.  

Because of her work with Cablevision, Posen was invited to speak to young entrepreneurs at the MIT Enterprise Forum about dealmaking, and her phone started ringing with calls from other entrepreneurs looking to hire her.  

In 2000, Posen started Diva Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage businesses founded or operated by women. It was an idea that was before its time, but it closed after the NASDAQ crash of 2001. Soon after that, Zac returned from London, and a new venture began.  

A Family Business Begins 

When Susan, Zac, and Alexandra started the design business House of Z, they worked out of the family loft for the first 18 months, bringing in models of all sizes to showcase the work for the designer’s earliest buyers, which included Henri Bendel and Bloomingdale’s.  

Susan negotiated deals with Barneys and Bloomingdales to purchase orders with 50 percent of the payment upfront, giving the burgeoning business the ability to buy fabric and produce garments, Zac told Women’s Wear Daily. Susan also drove a truck around Manhattan’s Garment District to deliver the merchandise to retailers.  

 “Working with my mother and my sister is something that is so rare and so special. That kind of family dynamic is also so much a part of the fashion industry,” Zac told Women’s Wear Daily.  

When Susan passed away after a three-year battle with bladder cancer, she was surrounded by her family at home in Bucks County, Pa.