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John E. Sullivan III is a founding member of Sullivan & Sullivan, Ltd.  His practice areas include asset protection planning, estate planning, business planning, related tax issues, debtor-creditor relations, workouts, asset recovery, and oil & gas.  

Mr. Sullivan has written and lectured extensively on many of these topics   Some of his works have been cited and/or quoted by various courts and in the official comments to the Uniform Trust Code.   

Mr. Sullivan also has significant experience in complex commercial litigation, including debtor-creditor and bankruptcy matters, suits under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act ("UFTA") or similar statutes, civil RICO suits, and oil & gas cases.

Mr. Sullivan has also represented taxpayers in various offshore voluntary compliance matters before IRS.

He has periodically served as an expert witness in cases involving disputes over estate planning and asset protection planning.  

University of Texas School of Law, J.D. 1984 

Boston College, B.A. (History and Economics) 1980 

Ohio

Illinois

Massachusetts

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Tax Court

U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey

Mr. Sullivan has been involved in a number of legislative projects involving statutes applicable to trusts, debtor-creditor laws, and limited liability companies ("LLCs").  Click here for some details.

Click here for some details on Mr. Sullivan's speaking engagements and publications.

Mr. Sullivan has authored or co-authored articles that have been favorably quoted and/or cited by in various court opinions.  Click here for some details.

Mr. Sullivan has worked as litigation counsel on several reported cases during his time as a litigator.  Click here for some details. 

While he has  primarily a been planning and transactional attorney for many years now, Mr. Sullivan has also previously acted as counsel of record in many complex lawsuits.  Click here for some details.

Mr. Sullivan was named one of the “Top 100 Attorneys” in the United States by Robb Report’s Worth Magazine (December 2005).  He has been quoted or cited in Bloomberg Wealth Manager, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.com.

He has been a guest lecturer in the International Business Organizations Course taught at Case Western Reserve University Law School (Cleveland, Ohio), has served as a peer reviewer for Oxford University Press in connection with a proposed academic text on anti-money laundering issues, and participated in the American Enterprise Institute’s 2007 Roundtable on Regulatory Competition and Offshore Financial Centers.

In 2009 and 2010, he was named a member of the Southpac Group’s Board of Advisors, which is an informal non-officer, non-director, non-employee group of attorneys that is periodically consulted by members of the Southpac Group regarding asset protection planning matters.

In 2013, Mr. Sullivan was awarded the Exceptional Service Award from the Estate Planning Council of Cleveland (this award is discretionary and is not annually awarded) for his roles in drafting and advocating for passage of the Ohio Asset Management Modernization Act of 2012 (a/k/a Ohio H.B. 479) and his ongoing contributions to the field of asset protection planning.

Mr. Sullivan is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and is an avid fan of Boston sports teams.  He enjoys reading history (especially Anglo-Celtic and American history), and also enjoys watching hockey, soccer, and rugby (preferably league instead of union).  Mr. Sullivan is usually on the ice playing hockey several times a week.  Starting with the 2018-2019 season and continuing until the end of the 2021-2022 season, he served as commissioner of the Cleveland Heights Over 50 Hockey League.