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Professor Frank Sullivan, Jr., has been selected to receive the prestigious 2017 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Seventh Circuit. He will be presented with the award by Judge John Daniel Tinder at the Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference in Indianapolis in May.

The American Inns of Court Professionalism Award honors “a lawyer or judge whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law.”

Dean Andrew R. Klein said, “The American Inns of Court could not have chosen a better recipient of their Professionalism Award than Professor Sullivan.  “Integrity” and “dedication” are his hallmarks and he brings his considerable professionalism and work ethic to his teaching, mentoring and scholarship just as he did to his judicial career and any undertaking he embarks upon.  We are extremely proud to have him on our faculty at IU McKinney.”

Sullivan is Professor of Practice at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law where he teaches courses in closely held business organizations, contracts, securities regulation, advanced sales, secured transactions, and a course in judging.  He has been recognized for his teaching by the students who selected him as the Red Cane winner (Best New Professor in 2014) and the Black Cane winner (Best Professor in 2015).  In 2016, IUPUI presented him with the Trustees’ Teaching award.

Prior to joining the faculty, Sullivan was a justice on the Indiana Supreme Court from 1993 to 2012. He authored approximately 500 majority opinions addressing a wide range of criminal, civil, and tax law issues. Several of his decisions were selected for publication in law school casebooks. During his tenure, he served as chair of the Court’s Judicial Technology and Automation Committee which, by improving computerization for Indiana trial courts and clerks, produced remarkable productivity and public safety benefits.

Sullivan is a past chair of the American Bar Association Appellate Judges Conference, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Commissioner from Indiana to the Uniform Law Commission. He is also a Master of the Bench of the Indianapolis American Inn of Court. He has been recognized for his leadership in promoting racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession by both the Indiana State and American Bar Associations. In this regard, he has been a leader of the ABA’s Judicial Clerkship Program which encourages minority law students to seek judicial clerkships.

Before taking the bench, Sullivan served as Indiana State Budget Director and Executive Assistant for Fiscal Policy to Indiana Governor Evan Bayh. Prior to state service, he was in private practice at Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis, where he concentrated on corporate, securities, and real estate law. Earlier, he served in various capacities on the staffs of two Indiana Congressmen, John Brademas and Edward Roush.

A cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Sullivan earned his J.D. magna cum laude at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. He earned his LL.M. at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia has a membership of more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide and more than 100,000 alumni members. Their organization seeks to inspire the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring.