Ronald S. Sullivan Jr.

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. (born December 12, 1966 in Gary, Indiana) is a law professor at the Harvard Law School. Sullivan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse College in 1989 and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994. Prior to joining the Harvard Law School faculty, Sullivan served as the Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Sullivan was elected President of the Black Law Students Association at Harvard Law School and served as a general editor of the Harvard Black Letter Law Journal, now known as the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Journal.^[1] Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Sullivan worked with the D.C. law firms of Baach Robinson & Lewis and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom,^[1] where Sullivan quickly gained experience with high-profile cases, such as those involving President Clinton.

Sullivan began his teaching career at Yale Law School where he won the law school's prestigious award for Outstanding Teaching. Sullivan was aggressively recruited by then-Dean Elena Kagan to become part of the Harvard Law School faculty.^[2] He teaches first year criminal law and upper level criminal procedure at Harvard, where he is consistently received high feedback from his students for his approachability, sense of humor, and admirable ease at the front of the classroom. He continues to write in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, democracy, and race.^[3]

Sullivan serves, in residence, as the master of Winthrop House at Harvard College, where he lives with his wife (fellow Harvard Law School instructor and Class of 1994 Harvard Law School alumna Stephanie Robinson) and two sons. He is the Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School,^[1] where he serves as "a real live criminal defense lawyer for clients who can't afford one."^[4] Sullivan also oversees the January term Trial Advocacy Workshop, an intensive three-week course for Harvard Law School students, featuring assistance from high-profile lawyers and judges from around the country. Sullivan is also a founding fellow, along with his wife, of the Jamestown Project,^[3][5] is actively involved with community organizations in the Massachusetts area, and regularly gives speeches and moderates panels on race-based violence. Sullivan also now serves as the official faculty advisor for Harvard Law School's chapter of the Black Law Students Association.

Sullivan has appeared as a legal analyst on CNN, C-SPAN, and Fox News Channel. He is known to take on countless cases, pro bono, across the nation, in addition to the cases he oversees as part of the Criminal Justice Institute. He represented one of the Jena Six defendants, and never lost a case during his years in Washington, D.C.'s Public Defender Services office.^[6]

Politics

Sullivan supported fellow Harvard Law School alumnus Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential electionwhere he chaired then-Senator Obama's Criminal Justice Policy Group.^[4] As a law student, Sullivan was mentored by fellow legal heavyweight and Obama supporter Charles Ogletree, and the two have remained close friends.

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