IN MEMORIAM:
TOM SULLIVAN
A Founder of the Firm’s Pro Bono Program
Our late partner Tom Sullivan was a legendary lawyer who helped launch the firm’s pro bono program in the 1950s. Jenner & Block mourned his passing in May 2021. Tom was 91.
In 1954, Tom joined Johnston, Thompson, Raymond & Mayer, the firm that would become Jenner & Block, and except for four years as US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, from 1977 to 1981, he spent his entire career at the firm. He became involved with pro bono work as a young associate, working with the Chicago Bar Association’s Defense of Prisoners Committee.
Throughout his career, Tom participated in some of the most significant legal and social issues of his time. Below are just a few examples of his life-changing pro bono work.
Tom with Senator Paul Simon, Democrat of Illinois, discussing the recommendations of the commission on capital punishment of which Mr. Sullivan was a chairman. In 2003, Gov. George H. Ryan commuted the death sentences of about 160 inmates based on those recommendations.
Fighting the Death Penalty
During the course of his entire career, Tom fought the death penalty. He handled individual death cases in the 1950s and 1960s, including the case of William Witherspoon. In 1960, a jury sentenced convicted murderer Mr. Witherspoon to death. Tom was on the team, led by partner Albert Jenner, that represented Mr. Witherspoon in a post-conviction review that challenged the constitutionality of how the jury was selected. In 1968, the US Supreme Court held that the method of jury selection was unconstitutional. As a result of that decision, not only was Mr. Witherspoon’s death sentence vacated, but more than 300 death row inmates across the country also were entitled to new trials, and the process of “death qualification” of jurors in capital cases was changed nationwide. Later, Tom chaired Illinois Governor George Ryan’s special commission and a special legislative commission, both of which analyzed problems in capital cases in Illinois and made recommendations to improve the system. Those recommendations (and the fact that courts found that more than 10 innocent men were on death row in Illinois) led Governor Ryan to declare a moratorium on executions in Illinois and, ultimately, to grant clemency to all prisoners on Illinois’ death row. Then, Tom helped lead efforts to repeal the death penalty in Illinois. Governor Patrick Quinn signed the abolition legislation in 2011.
William Witherspoon
In 1960, a jury sentenced convicted murderer William Witherspoon to death. Tom was on the team, led by name partner Albert Jenner, that represented Mr. Witherspoon in a post-conviction review that challenged the constitutionality of how the jury was selected. In 1968, the US Supreme Court held that the method of jury selection was unconstitutional, and Mr. Witherspoon’s death sentence was reversed.
From American Lawyer - October, 1979
Chicago Seven
In a high-profile case arising from the Democratic National Convention in 1968, Tom fought on behalf of four of the lawyers representing the Chicago Seven defendants, who were held in contempt by US District Judge Julius Hoffman. Later, he assisted with the successful appeal from their convictions. This article offers an in-depth look into the case.
Contract Buyers League
For almost 10 years starting in the 1960s, Tom was on the team representing African American Chicagoans who banded together as the “Contract Buyers League,” a reference to the contracts they were required to sign to buy homes. Due to racial prejudice, Chicago-area banks were unwilling to make mortgage loans to them, so these buyers had to make significant down payments and sign contracts that extended for many years. Ultimately, the team was able to renegotiate contracts for more than 450 families. Tom discusses the litigation in this video.
Partners Tom Sullivan and Terri Mascherin discuss the McCabe case and its significance within Jenner & Block’s pro bono legacy (4 mins).
Tom McCabe
Tom represented Tom McCabe, an Aurora, Illinois, man who was arrested in 1969 for selling $40 worth of cannabis. In the 1971 landmark case People v. McCabe, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the state’s statutory classification of marijuana with hard drugs was unconstitutional. Tom recalled the significance of the case in a CLE program in 2019.
Race Discrimination in Legislative Redistricting
In the early 1980s, Tom led a team of Jenner & Block lawyers in a successful challenge to racial discrimination in the state-wide legislative redistricting process. After a multi-week trial, a three-judge federal court determined that the challenged redistricting plan intentionally discriminated against African Americans in Chicago. It was the only decision outside of the Deep South finding intentional race discrimination in a state-wide redistricting plan.
Juan Rivera
In the 2000s, Tom was on the team that represented Juan Rivera in a retrial and appeal of his third conviction of the 1992 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. In 2011, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Illinois Appellate Court for the Second District reversed Mr. Rivera’s conviction. Partner Terri Mascherin recalls the case in this video.
Partner Terri Mascherin recalls the case.
Guantánamo Bay Prisoners
Tom was one of the first lawyers to represent prisoners who were held without charges at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in the aftermath of 9/11. He traveled to the base many times, briefed issues for his individual clients, and secured their release from Guantánamo. Tom also wrote on due process violations in op-ed pieces and for publications across the country, and he lobbied Congress and testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and its controversial provision stripping habeas corpus rights from Guantánamo detainees.
Recording Interrogations
More recently, Tom was a tireless advocate for police recording their interrogations of prisoners. In 2013, he helped draft legislation that requires Illinois police to record more interrogations of criminal suspects. Tom was present when Governor Patrick Quinn signed the legislation and was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying, “I think (the law) will go a long way toward preventing wrongful convictions.” In years since, Tom was a prolific speaker and author on the issue, including this 2014 article in Criminal Justice.
Thomas P. Sullivan Justice Award
In 2010, in honor of Tom’s 80th birthday, the firm began sponsoring an award in Tom’s name. Called the Thomas P. Sullivan Justice Award, it is given annually by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. It honors one or more individuals who have advanced the interests of justice and fairness in the criminal justice system. In 2021, Partner Terri Mascherin received the award. In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to Tom: “As all who knew Tom know, he had a moral compass that was firmly fixed and unmovable.”
The New York Times paid tribute to Tom’s remarkable life and career in an obituary that quotes Tom saying: “A person, no matter how awful he is, or how awful the crime he is accused of committing, is entitled to the full panoply of the law and the Constitution.”