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Kathleen Sullivan is a partner in the firm's New York office and heads its national appellate practice.  Recognized widely as one of the nation’s preeminent litigators, she has been named by The National Law Journal as one of  the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America, by The American Lawyer Litigation Daily as Litigator of the Week, and by California Lawyer as Appellate Lawyer of the Year.  Formerly professor of law at Harvard Law School and the dean of Stanford Law School, she has practiced law since 1982 in New York, Massachusetts and California alongside her prominent career as a leading scholar and teacher of constitutional law.

Since joining Quinn Emanuel in 2005, Sullivan has represented a wide range of clients, including Nokia, Samsung, Pfizer, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Siebel Systems, Oracle, Intuit, Hearst News, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Allegheny Energy, PG&E, AIG, and CNA.  And she has won numerous significant cases.  In a recent victory The New York Times called “stunning,” she persuaded the New York Court of Appeals to uphold Governor David Paterson’s power to appoint Richard Ravitch lieutenant governor.  This past year she also obtained a victory for Japanese ocean carrier Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. in the United States Supreme Court, which held unanimously that the Carmack Amendment, which governs domestic rail transportation, does not apply to an ocean carrier that make an overseas shipment under a single through bill of lading where the shipment  derails during the inland rail leg  (The Court also held 6-3 that the railroad, Union Pacific, was not bound by the Carmack Amendment.).  Two years ago, Ms. Sullivan also won an 8-1 victory for Shell Oil in the United States Supreme Court, which held that shipping useful products cannot make a company an “arranger” of waste disposal under the Superfund statute.  She won another landmark victory in the United States Supreme Court when it ruled in 2005 that states may not bar wineries from shipping to consumers out-of-state.

Ms. Sullivan has argued five cases before the United States Supreme Court; numerous cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, especially the First, Second, Fifth, Ninth and Federal Circuits; and various cases in state courts including the New York Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, and the Delaware Chancery Court.  In addition to her appeals practice, she plays an active role in the firm’s trial practice and has argued numerous significant motions in both state and federal court.

Represent Wyeth LLC in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth (No. 09-152), a case involving the Vaccine Act’s express preemption of design-defect claims against manufacturers of routinely administered childhood vaccines.

Obtained a victory for a Japanese ocean carrier in the US Supreme Court in Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. v. Regal-Beloit Corp. (No. 08-1553), which held unanimously that the restrictive provisions of the Carmack Amendment do not apply to an ocean carrier making an intermodal shipments of containerized cargo.

Obtained an 8-1 win for  Shell Oil Company in the US Supreme Court in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway v. United States; Shell Oil Co. v. United States, 127 S.Ct. 1870 (2009), which held that a shipper of useful products may not be held liable under CERCLA as an "arranger" for the disposal of hazardous waste.

 
Obtained a 5-4 win in the US Supreme Court for California wineries and Michigan wine consumers who successfully challenged discriminatory state bans on the interstate direct shipment of wine in Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005).

Obtained a 4-3 win in the New York Court of Appeals for New York Governor David Paterson in Skelos v. Paterson, 13 N.Y.3d 141; 915 N.E.2d 1141 (2009), which upheld the governor’s authority to appoint Richard Ravitch lieutenant governor in a constitutional case of first impression.

Represent Oracle in an appeal from a favorable summary judgment in  a securities class action in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Represent the Italian bankruptcy commissioner for Parmalat in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the New Jersey appellate courts in appeals involving claims against third parties for assisting corrupt insiders in those companies.

Represent the litigation trustee for the failed Refco entities in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and on certification to the New York Court of Appeals in appeal involving claims against third party professionals for assisting corrupt insiders in those companies.

 
Represent an agency of the Russian Federation in an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit seeking to reinstate claims to recover the trademarks to Stolichnaya vodka.

 
Obtained a unanimous win for Allegheny Energy, Inc. in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. v. Allegheny Energy, Inc., 500 F.3d 171 (2d Cir. 2007), which  overturned a $188 million contract judgment and reinstated all counterclaims in a dispute over a complex contract to sell an energy trading desk.

Obtained an 8-7 victory from an en banc panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in  Doe v. Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, 470 F.3d 827 (2006) (en banc), which upheld a Native Hawaiian admissions policy against challenge under 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

Obtained a victory for Samsung in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that an arbitrator must decide the arbitrability of a patent royalty dispute.

Obtained a victory for Nokia in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Nokia v. Qualcomm, which upheld an arbitrator’s jurisdiction to decide the arbitrability of claims.

Obtained a unanimous victory for Intuit in the New York Court of Appeals in a decision upholding attorneys’ latitude to interview a litigation opponent’s former employees.

Obtained dismissal of an SEC complaint against Siebel Systems in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in the first litigated challenge to the SEC's enforcement of Regulation FD.

Represented the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in the US Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits in federal preemption challenges to state greenhouse gas regulations.

Represented Hearst News and The San Francisco Chronicle in the USCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, defending press rights to shield confidential sources in the BALCO steroids in baseball story.

Represented a class of mothers and children receiving AFDC in the US Supreme Court in Anderson v. Green, 513 U.S. 557(1995) (per curiam), an ultimately successful constitutional challenge to multi-tier welfare systems based on length of residency.

Represented taxpayers in the US Supreme Court in Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868 (1991), a constitutional challenge under the Appointments Clause to the use of special trial judges by the Tax Court.

Represented the State of Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the City of Honolulu and the City of Berkeley in miscellaneous constitutional cases in the US Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Represented numerous pro bono clients in a variety of civil rights and civil liberties cases involving free speech, privacy and equal protection.