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Instructors

Susan Ludwig
Private Investigator

Ludwig became a private investigator following a successful career as an award-winning investigative writer, documentary filmmaker and creative director in Los Angeles and New York. After moving to Seattle, she successfully transitioned to private investigation by starting as an intern investigator at the King County public defender office. In a busy office of more than 70 public defenders, Ludwig learned and worked the gamut of criminal cases from misdemeanors to felonies, petty theft to murder. Today, through her own business, Investigators Detective Agency, Ludwig represents victims instead of the accused. Her firm investigates more than 300 cases annually for attorneys and their clients in the civil law/ personal injury arena. A founding member, former board and ethics committee member of the Washington Association of Legal investigators, Ludwig is a currently a state certified trainer of investigators.

Denise Scaffidi
Owner/Investigator, Scaffidi & Associates

Scaffidi specializes in the criminal defense of indigent and private clients in felony and district court cases, and in the investigation of employment and sexual discrimination and personal injury and civil rights cases. She was the lead defense investigator on the Green River case, overseeing the work of seven other investigators. Before establishing her own agency in 1996, she worked as a civil rights specialist for the Office of Civil Rights Enforcement, King County, and also as felony investigator with the Northwest Defenders Association, Seattle, where she investigated approximately 700 felony cases including aggravated murder, homicides, sexual assault, child abuse, burglary, robbery, and assault. She has also worked as an investigator with the National Labor Relations Board.

Michael Schwartz
Attorney at Law

Schwartz's practice focuses on criminal defense and complex civil litigation cases. Schwartz is the former director of the Economic Crimes Unit (ECU) for the Washington State Attorney General's Office, where he coordinated and directed the creation of the ECU. While with the Attorney General's Office, he also served as the deputy director of the Medical Fraud Control Unit. Additionally, Schwartz is a former deputy prosecuting attorney in the Criminal Division of the King County Prosecutor's Office. He has extensive investigative experience, as well as experience providing training on criminal procedures and legal/ evidentiary issues.

Instructors are subject to change.