Now the 29-year-old has become one of the youngest people in Northern Ireland to hold a ministerial portfolio.
She has only been an MLA for two years. So what is her background?
In 2008, after graduating from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics, Ms Sugden became an intern at the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
She subsequently took up an internship with the US Department of Health on the Washington/Ireland Program.
In 2011, the former Coleraine High School pupil managed the late MLA David McClarty's election campaign when he stood as an independent in East Londonderry.
She was co-opted onto Coleraine Borough Council in 2013 after Mr McClarty resigned his seat.
Ms Sugden was Mr McClarty's parliamentary assistant for five years and he nominated her to take up his East Londonderry post when he became ill.
After he died in April 2014, she became one of the youngest MLAs at Stormont when she took the vacated seat.
Now living in Castlerock, the former prison officer's daughter has assumed ultimate responsibility for the Prison Service.
The new justice minister has, in her own words, a "huge challenge" ahead of her, but her colleagues in the executive have given her a clear vote of confidence on her first day in the role.

Customers who pay via direct debit often receive bills based on estimated meter readings.
When an actual reading is taken, the company "back-bills" the customer for any shortfall between payments and the energy used.
Citizens Advice says that the bills hit thousands of pounds in some cases.
Its research last year showed that as many as 2.1 million consumers a year receive some sort of catch up bill, at an average of Â£206.
In 2007, energy suppliers signed a voluntary commitment promising not to back-bill domestic customers for energy used more than 12 months previously, if the supplier was at fault.
The expansion of the market has led to concerns that some are not keeping to this agreement, and regulator Ofgem wants to write it into the rules by the winter.
"We expect suppliers to put their customers first, which is why we are proposing a new enforceable rule to provide this protection," said Rachel Fletcher, senior partner at Ofgem.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: "Shock gas and electricity bills can throw people's finances into disarray.
"We helped one person who received a bill for over Â£3,000 after their energy company stopped taking their direct debit payment but didn't tell the customer. The firm refused to apply the 12 month back-bill limit, leaving the customer to pay the full bill.
"We've long been calling on the regulator to introduce a mandatory time limit for back bills instead of relying on voluntary action, which suppliers have refused to apply in some cases."
The regulator is planning to reduce the back bill time limit when more accurate smart meters become the norm in homes. Citizens Advice is calling for this deadline to be reduced to three months.
Claire Sugden is used to being the youngest - she grew up in Coleraine with four older siblings - three sisters and a brother.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Energy firms will be banned from charging catch-up bills for gas and electricity used more than 12 months earlier, under the regulator's plans.