Suzanne Blum

Suzanne Blumel, known as Suzanne Blum (24 November 1898 in Niort, France – 23 January 1994) was a French lawyer and writer under the pseudonym L.-S. Karen with three crime novels.

Early life Suzanne Marguerite Blumel was born at Niort in western France, daughter of merchant Joseph Blumel and Amélie, née Cahen. The family were from Alsace.

Career As a lawyer, she joined the bar in 1922 and worked on several famous cases, notably representing Warner Brothers against Igor Stravinsky in a copyright case, and Rita Hayworth during her divorce from Prince Aly Khan. Upon the death of the Duke of Windsor, she looked after the assets of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, and gradually became her single representative, until her death in 1986; Blum's presence and actions during these years are a subject of controversy. The biographer Hugo Vickers recounted that the Duchess's affairs had been the responsibility of Sir Godfrey Morley of Allen & Overy, but the "sinister" Blum had "sacked" him and taken control, the Duchess's "increasingly dismal health" meaning "Blum was able to do whatever she pleased"; much of her fortune was directed to the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris, with which the Duchess had no known connection, she having had little interest in charity during her life.

Personal life In 1934, she married Paul Weill, the Duke of Windsor's attorney in Paris. He died in 1965, and she subsequently remarried, to General Georges Spillmann (died 1980).