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Kathleen M. Sullivan
New York Office Tel: 212-849-7000 Fax: 212-849-7100 kathleensullivan@quinnemanuel.com Practice Areas Appellate Practice Education
Harvard Law School (J.D., 1981) Won Ames Moot Court Competition
Oxford University (B.A., 1978) Marshall Scholar
Cornell University (B.A., 1976) Telluride Scholar |
Biography
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 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.
Notable Representations
Represent a Japanese ocean carrier in the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to the application of the Carmack Amendment to intermodal shipments, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. v. Regal-Beloit Corp. (No. 08-1553).
Represent Pfizer in the U.S. Supreme Court in a pending cert. petition involving a challenge to Alien Tort Statute jurisdiction in Pfizer Inc. v. Abdullahi (No. 09-34).
Represent the Italian bankruptcy commissioner for Parmalat and the litigation trustee for Refco in appeals involving claims against third parties that assisted corrupt insiders in those companies.
Represent an agency of the Russian Federation in an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit seeking to reinstate claims to recover the trademarks to Stolichnaya vodka.
Represent the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits in federal preemption challenges to state greenhouse gas regulations.
Won an 8-1 victory for Shell Oil Company in the United States Supreme Court in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway and Shell Oil Co. v. United States, 127 S.Ct. 1870 (2009), which held that Shell cannot be held liable as an "arranger" under CERCLA for merely shipping useful chemicals.
Won a 5-4 victory in the U.S. Supreme Court for California wineries and Michigan wine consumers who successfully challenged discriminatory state bans on the interstate direct shipment of wine, see Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005).
Won a 4-3 victory in the New York Court of Appeals for New York Governor David Paterson in Skelos v. Paterson, which upheld the governor’s authority to appoint Richard Ravitch lieutenant governor.
Won a victory for Allegheny Energy, Inc. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which overturned a $188 million contract judgment against Allegheny and reinstated its counterclaims against Merrill Lynch.
Won an 8-7 victory from an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit for the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, upholding the Schools’ Native Hawaiian admissions policy against challenge under 42 U.S.C. § 1981; won a subsequent victory for the Schools in the Ninth Circuit holding that similar plaintiffs may not sue anonymously.
Won a victory for Samsung in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that an arbitrator must decide the arbitrability of a patent royalty dispute with Agere Systems.
Won a victory for Nokia in the Federal Circuit in Nokia v. Qualcomm, upholding arbitrators’ jurisdiction to decide the arbitrability of claims.
Won a unanimous victory for Intuit in the New York Court of Appeals upholding attorneys’ latitude to interview a litigation opponent’s former employees.
Won dismissal of an SEC complaint against Siebel Systems in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in the first litigated challenge to the SEC's enforcement of Regulation FD.
Represented Hearst News and The San Francisco Chronicle in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, defending press rights to shield confidential sources in the BALCO steroids in baseball story.
Represented Senator Mitch McConnell in the US Supreme Court FEC v. McConnell, a free speech challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act.
Represented a class of mothers and children receiving AFDC in the U.S. Supreme Court in Anderson v. Green (which laid the ground for Saenz v. Roe).
Represented taxpayers in the U.S. Supreme Court in Freytag v. Commissioner, a constitutional challenge to the use of special trial judges by the Tax Court.
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