Barry Sullivan

Barry Sullivan is a litigation partner and co-chair of the Appellate & Supreme Court Practice at Jenner & Block. Mr. Sullivan has handled a wide variety of cases at all levels of the judicial system. Since 1975, when Mr. Sullivan first joined the firm, following a clerkship with Judge John Minor Wisdom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, appellate litigation has been a special emphasis of his practice. He argued his first appeal in the Seventh Circuit in 1976 and has orally argued scores of appellate cases throughout the country since that time. During 1980-81, Mr. Sullivan served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. In that capacity, he argued several cases in the United States Supreme Court and participated in all aspects of the work undertaken by the Office of Solicitor General. Mr. Sullivan was one of the attorneys who successfully upheld the OSHA standard for occupational exposure to cotton dust in American Textile Manufacturers Institute v. Donovan, 452 U.S. 490 (1981). He argued two important Title VII cases in the Supreme Court: EEOC v. Associated Dry Goods Corp., 449 U.S. 590 (1981), and County of Washington v. Gunther, 452 U.S. 161 (1981). He also argued Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith v. Curran, 456 U.S. 353 (1982), which implied a federal private right of action under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Mr. Sullivan's cases have involved state and federal constitutional and administrative law, local government law, environmental law, labor and employment law, bankruptcies and corporate restructurings, corporate and securities law, and criminal cases. He also has maintained an active pro bono practice, representing both indigent parties and non-governmental organizations in significant appellate litigations. He was a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs 1990-97 and 2004-07.

Among his most notable cases are Dunne v. County of Cook, 108 Ill.2d 161 (1985) (Cook County Board president's veto power); Colaizzi v. Walker, 812 F.2d 304 (7th Cir. 1987) (official immunity); Lewisburg Comm. Hosp. v. Alfredson, 805 S.W.2d 756 (Tenn. 1991) (hospital privileges); Complaint of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability, 3 F.3d 225 (7th Cir. 1993), aff'd, 513 U.S. 527 (1995) (Chicago Flood Case); Deere & Co. v. Ohio Gear, 462 F.3d 701 (7th Cir. 2006) (reversing summary judgment on civil procedure ground); City of Bridgeton v. Missouri- American Water Co., _ S.W.2d _ (2007) (costs of moving utilities). He recently filed a brief in the Supreme Court of the United States in Department of Revenue of Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Davis, No. 06-666 (dormant commerce clause).

Mr. Sullivan's many pro bono cases include Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), and Johnson v. California, 545 U.S. 162 (2005), in which he served as counsel of record for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law. He represented the American Bar Association as amicus curiae in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004), and the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois v. Caballes, 543 U.S. 405 (2005). Mr. Sullivan argued People v. Wilson, 116 Ill. 2d 29 (1987), a landmark death penalty case, in the Illinois Supreme Court.

From 1994 to 1999, Mr. Sullivan served as Dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law. In 2000-2001, he was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Warsaw and a Visiting Fellow of the University of London. He is a frequent speaker before professional and academic audiences, and his publications have appeared in prominent U.S. and European journals. Mr. Sullivan regularly teaches a course in law and policymaking at the University of Chicago, where he is Senior Lecturer in the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. A graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Chicago Law School, he is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of Phi Beta Kappa.