11/25/92
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Kathleen Sullivan, a nationally known expert and commentator on constitutional law, has accepted an offer to join the Stanford Law School faculty.
Subject to normal tenure review by the university, Sullivan will become a member of Stanford's permanent faculty after nine years on the Harvard Law School faculty, the last four as a tenured professor.
Sullivan taught at Stanford last spring as a visiting professor, and is well-known to its law faculty.
"Professor Sullivan is among the most respected constitutional law scholars in the country and a phenomenal teacher," said Paul Brest, dean of Stanford Law School, in announcing her appointment. "We are very pleased that she has accepted our offer."
Sullivan will arrive at Stanford during the summer of 1993 and begin teaching that fall in the areas of constitutional law and criminal law.
Her appointment brings to nine the number of women on the 45-member Stanford Law School faculty. Four of the nine, including Sullivan, are tenured, and the other five are on the tenure track.
Sullivan, 37, is recognized as both an outstanding teacher and one of the most influential legal scholars of her generation. In 1992, she was the first winner of Harvard Law School's Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence.
In addition to contributing to the scholarly literature, she has written opinion pieces and book reviews for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other major periodicals.
She often participates in court cases, sometimes before the U.S. Supreme Court, as counsel or co-counsel or as a co-author of amicus curiae briefs.
Sullivan also frequently is called upon to provide expert testimony at Senate hearings and other public deliberations, to deliver public speeches, and to discuss current issues on such television news programs as "Nightline" and the "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour."
Her public commentary often concerns the U.S. Supreme Court, both its makeup and its decisions. Sullivan testified at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Robert Bork, and wrote and spoke on the issues raised by the Clarence Thomas hearings, particularly as related to Anita Hill's testimony.
The U.S. Supreme Court cases in which she has been involved include Rust v. Sullivan (no relation), in which the courts overruled the so-called "gag rule" imposed by the Bush administration on workers in federally funded family planning clinics. The rule, which Kathleen Sullivan helped argue against, prohibited such workers from speaking favorably about abortion as an option available to pregnant girls and women.
First Amendment issues are also at the heart of her current scholarly project - a book with the working title of "Art on Trial: The NEA and the Battle for Free Expression." The book addresses the role of government funding for the arts and whether such funding legitimizes a degree of government content control.
Sullivan was born on Aug. 20, 1955, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. She spent her childhood years on Long Island, N.Y., graduating from Cold Spring Harbor High School in 1972.
She received her undergraduate education at Cornell University , earning election to Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society, and graduating in 1976 with distinction in all subjects.
She then spent two years as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in England, where in 1978 she received a bachelor's degree with first-class honors in philosophy, politics and economics.
She received her law degree cum laude at Harvard in 1981. While a law student, she was a member of the winning team in the Ames Moot Court Competition and was adjudged the best oralist in the final round of the appellate court simulation.
After graduation, she served for one year as a law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Brattleboro, Vt. and New York City. From 1982 to 1984, she practiced law, doing appellate work in constitutional law and criminal defense cases.
Sullivan began her teaching career at Harvard as an assistant professor of law in 1984, rising to the rank of full professor in 1989.
While a member of the Harvard faculty, she served as a visiting professor at two other law schools: The University of Southern California Law Center in the fall of 1991, and Stanford in the spring of 1992.
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