Justice Thomas R. Sullivan was born around the year 1926. He graduated from Villanova College in 1949 and Fordham University School of Law in 1952. He later earned an LL.M. degree from Brooklyn Law School. Sullivan served as an assistant district attorney in Richmond County from 1956 until 1964 and as chief assistant district attorney from 1973 until 1975. In the interim, he was employed at Sullivan Securities, a family business. In 1975, he won election as District Attorney of Richmond County and was re-elected in 1979.
In 1982, Sullivan was elected to the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial District. He was designated to the Appellate Division, Second Department in 1986, and served on that bench until his retirement in 2001.
Sullivan served as President of the New York State District Attorneys Association from 1990 until 1992, chair of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board from 1997 until 2000, and as a member of the New York City Association of Justices of the Supreme Court. He also served as a sergeant in the Combat Engineers during World War II.
He had three daughters and four grandchildren. He died on February 27, 2012 at the age of 86.
Sources
Appellate Division, Second Department, 100th Anniversary. 20. The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York, 1996. Web. 16 July 2012. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/history/pdf/Library/Courts/App_Div_Sec_Dept_100th_Anniv.pdf.
“Thomas R. Sullivan.” New York Law Journal 29 Feb. 2012, Obituary sec. Print.