Richard J. Sullivan

Richard J. Sullivan
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office August 1, 2007
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Michael B. Mukasey
Personal details
Born	April 10, 1964 Manhasset, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	College of William and Mary Yale Law School

Richard Joseph Sullivan (born April 10, 1964) is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Background and education

Richard Sullivan was born in Manhasset, New York. He graduated from Chaminade High School in 1982 and earned a B.A. in Government and English at the College of William and Mary in 1986. He received his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1990.

Professional career

After law school, Sullivan worked as a law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

From 1994 to 2005, Sullivan served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the Maisonet heroin organization, which sold approximately $100,000 worth of heroin per day in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx and carried out numerous murders in aid of its racketeering activity.^[1] Among those prosecuted in that case was Bronx defense attorney Pat Stiso, who acted as house counsel to the RICO enterprise.^[2] Other notable cases included the investigation and indictment of Mario Villanueva Madrid, who as governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo accepted millions of dollars from Mexican drug cartels in exchange for providing safe passage for ton quantities of cocaine en route to the United States.^[3] Madrid was eventually extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy.^[4]

In 2002, Sullivan became Chief of the newly created International Narcotics Trafficking Unit (INT), which was responsible for investigating and prosecuting the world's largest and most powerful narcotics organizations.^[5] Among the noteworthy defendants prosecuted by that Unit were Colombia kingpins Alberto Orlandez Gamboa, Diego Murillo Bejarano, and Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela; Afghan warlord Bashir Noorzai; Dutch ecstasy kingpin Henk Rommy; and the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Sullivan was named Prosecutor of the Year by the Federal Law Enforcement Association in 1998 and was awarded the Henry L. Stimson Medal from the New York City Bar Association in 2003.^[6]

In 2005, Sullivan joined Marsh Inc., a global risk and insurances firm, as Deputy General Counsel for litigation.^[7] He was named General Counsel of Marsh Inc. in June 2006.

Judicial career

On February 15, 2007, Sullivan was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Michael B. Mukasey, who had retired from the bench in September 2006. Sullivan was confirmed by the United States Senate in a vote of 99-0 on June 28, 2007, and received his commission on August 1, 2007. He was among the "Judges to Watch" named in the September 2012 issue of The American Lawyer.^[8]

Sullivan sits on the executive board of the New York American Inn of Court and is an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he teaches courses on white collar crime and trial advocacy,^[9] and Columbia Law School, where he teaches a course on sentencing.^[10] In December 2012, Sullivan participated in a musical revue hosted by the New York American Inn of Court on the topic of civility in the legal profession.^[11]

In 2015, Above the Law listed Sullivan as one of several District Court "feeder" judges who have sent multiple former clerks onto Supreme Court clerkships.^[12]

Notable cases

Capitol Records v. ReDigi, --- F. Supp. 2d ----, 2013 WL 1286134 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2013)

S.E.C. v. Syron, --- F. Supp. 2d ----, 2013 WL 1285572 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 28, 2013)

S.E.C. v. Straub, --- F. Supp. 2d ----, 2013 WL 466600 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 08, 2013)

Dinler v. City of New York, 2012 WL 4513352 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2012)

In re UBS Securities Litigation, 2012 WL 4471265 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 28, 2012)

Merrill Lynch Capital Servs. v. UISA Fin., 2012 WL 1202034 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 10, 2012)

U.S. v. Goffer, No. 10 Cr. 56 (RJS)

In re Wachovia Equity Securities Litigation, 753 F. Supp. 2d 326 (S.D.N.Y. 2011)

U.S. v. Painting known as Le Marche, 2010 WL 2229159 (S.D.N.Y. May 25, 2010)

New York Civil Liberties Union v. New York City Transit Authority, 675 F. Supp. 2d 411 (S.D.N.Y. 2009)

U.S. v. DiPascali, No. 09 Cr. 764 (RJS)

Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay, 576 F. Supp. 2d 463 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)

References

1. Benjamin Weiser, "U.S. Indicts Bronx Lawyer Accused of Abetting a Drug Gang," N.Y. Times, Jan. 15, 1998.
2. Benjamin Weiser, "Lawyer Admits He Held Clients' Drug Money," N.Y. Times, Aug. 13, 1998.
3. U.S. v. Madrid, 02 Cr. 416 (NRB), Indictment.
4. "Former Mexican Governor Pleads Guilty," N.Y. Times, Aug. 2, 2012.
5. Benjamin Weiser, "A New York Prosecutor With Worldwide Reach," N.Y. Times, Mar. 27, 2011.
6. The Henry L. Stimson Medal, New York City Bar Association.
7. News Release, Marsh & McLennan Companies, July 5, 2007.
8. Julie McMahon, "Judges to Watch: Richard Sullivan," The American Lawyer, Sept. 30, 2012.
9. Richard Sullivan, Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham University.
10. Richard Sullivan, Adjunct Professor of Law, Columbia Law School.
11. Jennifer Smith, "Lawyers Behaving Badly Get a Dressing Down from Civility Cops," Wall St. J., Jan. 27, 2013.
12. http://abovethelaw.com/2015/08/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-non-traditional-feeder-judges/

External links

• Richard J. Sullivan at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.