Professor Kathleen M. Sullivan, a constitutional law scholar and former Dean of Stanford Law School, will speak at the LSU Law Center on Tuesday, March 22 as the featured lecturer in the Judge Alvin B. and Janice G. Rubin Visiting Professor Lecture Series. She is the author of the nation’s leading casebook on Constitutional Law.
The lecture, titled “Is Constitutional Law Law? Recent Trends in Free Speech and Federalism,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Law Center’s David W. Robinson Courtroom. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Professor Sullivan is a nationally prominent scholar, teacher and litigator, and she was the founding director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. She is widely published on topics including federalism, religion, speech, equality, and constitutional theory. Professor Sullivan is now a partner with the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in New York City where she chairs its national appellate practice. She is the first woman to be made a name partner of a major national law firm.
Professor Sullivan began her teaching career at Harvard Law School, her alma mater, where she became a tenured professor in 1989, and in 1993 she joined the law faculty at Stanford. From 1999 to 2004, Professor Sullivan served as dean of Stanford Law School – the first woman dean at Stanford University. During her tenure, she made fifteen faculty appointments, established the clinical faculty, launched numerous academic centers, started the LLM program, and raised over $100 million in philanthropic support.
Widely recognized as one of the nation’s preeminent appellate litigators, she has been named by The National Law Journal as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America, by the Daily Journal as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California, by The American Lawyer Litigation Daily as Litigator of the Week, and by California Lawyer as Appellate Lawyer of the Year. A recent New York Times editorial called her “a formidable advocate” and a recent National Law Journal article called her a Supreme Court “superstar.”
Sullivan has practiced law since 1982 in New York, Massachusetts and California. Since joining Quinn Emanuel in 2005, Sullivan has represented a wide range of clients, including Shell Oil, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Samsung, Pfizer, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Siebel Systems, Oracle, Intuit, Hearst News, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Allegheny Energy, PG&E, AIG, and CNA. She has won numerous significant cases, including merits victories in the US Supreme Court for Shell Oil, “K Line,” and California wineries, and a ruling by the New York Court of Appeals upholding the power of New York’s Governor to appoint a lieutenant governor. The New York Times called the victory “stunning.”
She has argued six cases before the United States Supreme Court; numerous cases in the US Courts of Appeals, including the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Ninth and Federal Circuits; and various cases in state high courts including three cases before the New York Court of Appeals. In addition to her appeals practice, Ms. Sullivan plays an active role in the firm’s trial practice and has briefed and argued numerous significant motions in various federal district courts and state trial courts, including the New York Supreme Court and the Delaware Chancery Court.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Additional professional activities include memberships on the Board of Directors of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Board of Trustees of the Century Foundation; and, Editorial Board of Foundation Press. Ms. Sullivan holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an M.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
The Lecture Series is named for the late Judge Alvin B. Rubin and Janice Ginsberg Rubin. Judge Rubin, a 1942 graduate of the LSU Law Center, is one of the most distinguished graduates of LSU Law. In 1966, Judge Rubin was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to serve as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Later, President Jimmy Carter named Judge Rubin to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals bench in 1977. Judge Rubin wrote more than 700 opinions during his 24 years in the federal court. He served as an adjunct professor at the Law Center for 43 years.
Janice Ginsberg Rubin was a native of Alexandria and a graduate of Newcomb College in New Orleans. She was deeply involved in many civic and community activities. Ms. Rubin was a noted author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. She co-authored the Louisiana Trust Handbook and other papers, speeches and articles with Judge Rubin.
The Rubin’s left a lasting impact on the legal community and the LSU Law Center. The Judge Alvin B. and Janice G. Rubin Visiting Professor of Law Program provides funds to bring outstanding legal scholars to the LSU Law Center.
Past Visiting Lecturers have included:
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, United States Supreme Court; Justice Anthony Kennedy, United States Supreme Court; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, United States Supreme Court; Justice R. J. Goldstone, Constitutional Court of South Africa; Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania and Director, American Law Institute; Madame Justice Claire L’Heureaux-Dubé, Supreme Court of Canada; Honorable Marsha B. Berzon, United States Court of Appeals , Ninth Circuit; Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit; Honorable Thomas M. Reavley, Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
For more information, contact Karen Soniat, ksonia2@lsu.edu or 225/578-8645.
