Influencing the law

Professor Barry Sullivan shares his experience in front of the Supreme Court with students and beyond

A full-time faculty member at the School of Law since 2009, Professor Barry Sullivan has had a varied career in the private practice of law, government legal practice, the teaching of law and public policy, and university administration. He is the inaugural Cooney & Conway Chair in Advocacy, a position that he says is unique among law schools: “Most law schools have professors who teach trial advocacy or appellate advocacy, but they don’t have chairs that are devoted to this; it reinforces the emphasis that we have on advocacy here.” 

Sullivan, who is also the School of Law’s inaugural George Anastaplo Professor of Constitutional Law and History, began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans and later served as an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States.

Sullivan has litigated cases in many state and federal courts, including arguing four cases in front of the United States Supreme Court. Among his notable cases is People v. Wilson, in which the Illinois Supreme Court reversed a death penalty conviction based on police torture by the Chicago Police Department. He was counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law as amicus curiae in Batson v. Kentucky, a landmark case on racial discrimination in jury selection, and for the American Bar Association as amicus curiae in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, which ruled that enemy combatants who are U.S. citizens and detained by the U.S. government must have the rights of due process, and the ability to challenge their enemy combatant status before an impartial authority. 

“When you’re lucky enough to have that kind of opportunity to influence the law,” Sullivan says, “it’s pretty exciting.”

Students seek out Sullivan’s upper-level constitutional law classes for the real-life experience he brings to the cases they discuss, including some that he briefed or argued. In the classroom, Sullivan says he prides himself on “listening to students … to take them seriously, to try to make them think about the reasons why the law is the way it is, and the importance of civility in the practice of law. And that’s not easy these days with the outside political temperature being as high as it is.” 

The Honorable Mary M. Rowland of the Northern District of Illinois visits School of Law students and Professor Barry Sullivan as part of the Cooney & Conway judge-in-residence program.

Each year, Sullivan recruits notable judges to visit with School of Law students, such as Carlton Reeves, a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Mississippi, and Mary Rowland, a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois. “It’s really important for students, not just advocacy students, to be able to have personal contact with judges and ask questions,” he says. “So many of our students go on to be judges, so it’s really important for them to get a sense of what being a judge is all about.” 

He also mentors students in moot court competitions, sitting on pre-moot panels and reviewing briefs when the rules of a competition permit it.

“We not only do an excellent job of training advocates here at Loyola,” he says, “we train an awful lot of them. A lot of our students end up being trial lawyers or appellate lawyers and judges.” 

“When you’re lucky enough to have that kind of opportunity to influence the law, it’s pretty exciting.”

Many students enroll at the School of Law because of the Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy, he says, which is led by Director Zelda B. Harris, Associate Director Adrienne Mebane, and Assistant Director Gina Gerardi, and supported by adjunct professors, many of whom are School of Law graduates. “They give so much of their time to be coaches and teachers of our students,” he says. 

In addition, Sullivan is an accomplished scholar, and his recent research appears in leading law journals. 

“Coming here was the best decision I’ve made in my life,” says Sullivan. “I couldn’t be happier doing this work, and I’m so grateful to the Cooney & Conway firm for making it all possible.” –Kristi Turnbaugh (March 2023)