Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. (born March 11, 1942,

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

) is an American lawyer who is currently a senior partner in the law firm Williams & Connolly. Sullivan is a white-collar criminal defense attorney best known for his defense of

U.S. Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

Lieutenant Colonel

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

in the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s. He is known for his combative style and several prosecutors have been fired, disbarred, or jailed for

prosecutorial misconduct In jurisprudence, prosecutorial misconduct or prosecutorial overreach is "an illegal act or failing to act, on the part of a prosecutor, especially an attempt to sway the jury to wrongly convict a defendant or to impose a harsher than appropri ...

Sullivan had uncovered. He has also represented former

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

(HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros,

Walter Forbes Walter Forbes (born 1942/43) is an American corporate executive and former Federal prisoner. He was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, a ...

, former chairman of

Cendant Corporation Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...

, and a number of states against

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

, and the lacrosse players in the

Duke lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Evans, Collin ...

Education and military career

Sullivan is a graduate of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, where he earned his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1964 and J.D. in 1967. He served as a captain in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Transportation Corps from 1968 to 1969. He entered the national spotlight after he helped defend soldiers charged in the

Presidio mutiny The Presidio mutiny, one of the earliest instances of significant internal military resistance to the Vietnam War, was a sit-down protest carried out by 27 prisoners at the Presidio stockade in San Francisco, California on October 14, 1968. The s ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Apparently his courtroom tactics "so annoyed his Army superiors" that he was ordered to return to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

for the last six months of his tour but the Secretary of the Army personally blocked the deployment after being pressured by members of Congress to do so. Afterwards, a Georgetown law professor introduced him to

Edward Bennett Williams Edward Bennett Williams (May 31, 1920 – August 13, 1988) was an American lawyer who became a high-profile defense lawyer and co-founded the law firm of Williams & Connolly. Williams also owned several professional sports teams, including the Bal ...

, a prominent defense attorney. Sullivan joined his law firm, Williams & Connolly, where he "entice his new mentor to visit his office by offering Williams his beloved peanut butter crackers", according to a 2012 interview in '' The Washingtonian''. Williams and Sullivan enjoyed a father-son relationship with "real deep affection".

Career

Oliver North

Sullivan shot to national prominence in 1987, when he represented

in televised congressional hearings over the Iran-Contra scandal. During the hearings in front of the Joint House-Senate Iran-Contra Committee, chairman Senator Daniel Inouye suggested that North speak for himself, admonishing Sullivan for constantly objecting to questions posed to North. Sullivan famously responded, "Well, sir, I'm not a potted plant. I'm here as the lawyer. That's my job." Furthermore, apparently he "shouted down a question" that he claimed violated attorney-client privilege: "That's none of your business either!" Sullivan received international media attention as the episode was broadcast on live television, making him "something of a hero to lawyers, even moderates and liberals". The hearing showcased his "confrontational style of 'protecting the client at any cost'" that has proven to be "extremely effective" despite angering several congressmen.

Ted Stevens

Sullivan's defense of U.S. Senator

Ted Stevens Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Senator in history at the time he left ...

has been described as his "most prominent win against the government, and the one that must loom largest for the

U.S. Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

's Office". He was defending Stevens after his federal grand jury indictment on seven counts of failing to properly report gifts. Stevens was convicted of all counts in a trial before D.C. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, on October 27, 2008, shortly before election day, when he would be narrowly defeated by

Mark Begich Mark Peter Begich ( ; born March 30, 1962) is an American politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously ser ...

. Discovery of the prosecution's failure to provide sufficient exculpatory information in response to a

Brady Brady may refer to: People * Brady (surname) * Brady (given name) * Brady (nickname) * Brady Boone, a ring name of American professional wrestler Dean Peters (1958–1998) Places in the United States * Brady, Montana, a census-designated plac ...

motion, led to Attorney General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African Amer ...

withdrawing the indictment after a reversal of the verdict during the appeal process.

Other notable cases

He also sued

, on behalf of nine

state attorneys general The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states, of the federal district, or of any of the territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney genera ...

who were unhappy with the federal government's decision to drop the

Microsoft antitrust case ''United States v. Microsoft Corporation'', 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001), was a landmark American antitrust law case at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally ...

. He also represented the four

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agents involved in the controversial 1992 Ruby Ridge shootout. He defended former

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the presidential line of succe ...

Henry Cisneros against accusations of making false statements to the

during a

background check A background check is a process a person or company uses to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and this provides an opportunity to check and confirm the validity of someone's criminal record, education, employment history, and oth ...

. He is the attorney for billionaire chipmaker Henry Nicholas, the founder of

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

, who was charged with violating securities and narcotics law in June 2008. Sullivan represented three of the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

players accused of raping a stripper in the 2006

. The prosecutor,

Mike Nifong Michael Byron Nifong (born September 14, 1950) is an American former attorney and convicted criminal. He served as the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina until he was removed, disbarred, and jailed following court findings concer ...

, served a day in jail for contempt of court and was disbarred because he did not disclose DNA evidence to the defense that would have weakened his case; Sullivan's clients, and all others accused were declared "innocent" by then North Carolina Attorney General

Roy Cooper Roy Asberry Cooper III (born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician, serving as the 75th governor of North Carolina since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina from 20 ...

. Additionally, he successfully defended

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

CEO Dick Grasso who was sued by the Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer in 2004.

Style

In 2012, Sullivan explained to

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

interviewers during an investigation of overzealous prosecution that "the heat of battle" was responsible for leading honest and upstanding prosecutors to forget prosecutorial ethics. He said that they "see almost everyone they deal with as a law violator", something he calls the " Al Capone mentality". In a 2011

commencement speech A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions and in similar institutions around the world. The commencement ...

, Sullivan urged the graduates to "be on the lookout for injustice" for both the poor and the wealthy. Some of his best-known quotations include: * "I'm not a potted plant. I'm here as the lawyer. That's my job." * "

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems ( ...

, your honor, is the fruit of Microsoft's statutory violations and it should be denied them." * "Tapes, as we all know, are very powerful evidence. Tapes that are altered are powerfully misleading." * "The fate of no citizen should rest on the testimony of such a man so richly rewarded." * "Dismiss it!″ In 2000, he received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

. He is a fellow in the

American College of Trial Lawyers The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) is a professional association of trial lawyers from the United States and Canada. Founded in 1950, the College is dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, especially trial ...

, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law by

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

in 2011.

In popular culture

Minneapolis band Beat the Clock has a song on their 1992 ''Funk Bus'' album called "Brendan V.", about Sullivan's role in the Oliver North trial.

Publications

* 1985, ''White Collar Criminal Practice Grand Jury, Litigation and Administrative Practice Series'' (Criminal Law Course Handbook No. 137) * 1983, ''Techniques for Dealing with Pending Criminal Charges or Criminal Investigations, Litigation and Administrative Practice Series'' (Criminal Law Course Handbook Series No. 130) * 1981 ''Grand Jury Proceedings, Litigation and Administrative Practice'' (Criminal Law Course Handbook Series No. 121)

References

External links

Brendan V. Sullivan, Jr., Partner
– Official profile page at Williams & Connolly LLP * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Brendan 1942 births Living people American law firm executives American legal writers Criminal defense lawyers Georgetown University alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni Lawyers from Pittsburgh Lawyers from Washington, D.C.