Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Yale Law '90: Hon. Richard Sullivan (US 2nd Circuit)
I have known Rich Sullivan for a very long time-- 38 years! I was his RA in college at William and Mary, where he was a year behind me. From the first time I met him, I knew that he was smarter than the average bear. He is one of my friends that I most admire.
During his freshman year, we became close enough that when his parents could not make it down for Parents Weekend, a friend and I took on the role, dressing up the way we incorrectly imagined parents from Long Island dressed (loud shirts, shorts, cameras) and took him to Shoney's for dinner.
After college I lost touch with him. Which made it all the more surprising when I found him moving in next door to me at Yale Law School! After that, our friendship was for good.
In law school, Rich was one of those people you always hoped would say something in class, since what he had to offer was always not only well thought-out but also often both insightful and unique. He was (and is) a conscientious Catholic, and I learned a lot of what I know about Catholicism from him. Within the student community, he was leader-- of the Federalist society, but also of the intellectual life of the school.
After law school, to a certain point, our careers tracked one another. We both clerked for a federal judge for a year (he clerked in the 10th Circuit), then spent three years working at a big firm (in New York). After that, in tandem, we both moved on to jobs as federal prosecutors, he in New York while I took a job in Detroit.
There things diverge. I was a run-of-the-mill prosecutor for five years before leaving for the academy. Rich, on the other hand, became a superstar who was known to be both fair and innovative. In 2002, he became the first chief of the Southern District of New York's International Narcotics Trafficking Unit, which focused on what federal prosecutors do best: taking down the most important transnational organizations. They accomplished remarkable things, convicting warlords, major traffickers, and cartels.
In 2005, he left for federal practice, but that did not last long. In 2007, he was appointed to be a judge for the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Last year, he was elevated to the Second Circuit, the appellate court for New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
Over the past several years, we have put on a debate on narcotics sentencing at Harvard, Yale, Penn, NYU, and St. Thomas. He is my favorite person to debate, and over time I think we have each convinced one another a bit.
He is a wonderful judge. A few years ago, we were set to go out to dinner. I got to the courthouse early and dropped in to see him sentence a defendant. Those proceedings can be dry and formulaic, draining the human aspect from a crucially important societal function.
Rich was not that kind of sentencing judge. His sentencing was long-- as it should be-- and fully acknowledged the human dignity of the victims of the crime and the defendant. As I watched, I admired him more than ever. And given that (inexplicably) Shoney's still exists, someday we might go back there.
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