John J. Sullivan

Who is John J. Sullivan?

John Joseph Sullivan is an American lawyer. He served as Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce from 2008 to 2009 in the George W. Bush administration.

Sullivan, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, received his A.B. in History and Political Science from Brown University in 1981 and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1985. At Columbia, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Book Reviews Editor of the Columbia Law Review. He was a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for United States Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.

In 1991, Sullivan served as Counselor to Assistant Attorney General J. Michael Luttig in the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice. The next year, he served as Deputy General Counsel of President George H. W. Bush's 1992 re-election campaign. In 1993, Sullivan joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, where he practiced Supreme Court law.

In February 2004, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed Sullivan as Deputy General Counsel of the United States Department of Defense.