Thomas P. Sullivan
Thomas P. Sullivan (Photo: Jennifer Linzer)
Thomas P. Sullivan is a senior partner at Jenner & Block LLP and the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He was co-chair of Illinois Governor George H. Ryan's Commission on Capital Punishment from 2000 until it completed its work in 2002 and presently serves as chairman of the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee.
After graduating from Loyola University Law School in Chicago in 1952 and serving two years in the Army, including a year in Korea, Mr. Sullivan joined Jenner & Block. He has practiced at the firm continuously since 1954, except from 1977 to 1981 when he was the U.S. Attorney. A member of the bars of Illinois, California, and New Mexico, he specializes in civil and criminal trial and appellate litigation. He a frequent author and lecturer on trial and appellate practice and has taught at Loyola and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He is a past member of the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers. Recently he has been a moving force behind efforts in several states to require law enforcement agencies to electronically record custodial interrogations of suspects in major felony cases. For more information on the issue, see his report Police Experiences with Electronic Recording of Custodial Interrogations.
