Sullivan & Cromwell’s relationship with Harvard Law School dates back to 1891, when Edward Bruce Hill, one of S&C’s first partners, joined the Firm. Today, more than 100 graduates of Harvard Law School—including our Senior Chair, Rodge Cohen—practice at S&C. HLS graduates are represented in ten of the Firm’s 13 offices worldwide, and 31 of the Firm’s partners are HLS alumni. Many of our HLS alumni at S&C have clerked, including on the U.S. Supreme Court and at the federal appellate level.
In addition to our senior chair, many HLS alumni hold significant leadership roles at the Firm. Sergio Galvis (HLS '83) is S&C's Head of Global Recruiting and sits on the Firm's Management Committee. HLS partners, associates and special counsel serve on the Firm’s Associate Experience Committee, Diversity Committee and Women’s Initiative Committee, and several HLS alumni serve as managing partners of practice groups or offices.
Many S&C HLS alumni are actively involved in the Firm’s pro bono practice; recent matters include representing Success Academy Charter Schools in appellate litigation against the New York City Department of Education concerning the ability of charters schools to autonomously provide pre-kindergarten programs; obtaining asylum for clients facing persecution in their home countries; successfully appealing a denial of benefits for a veteran who suffers from disabilities as a result of injuries that happened during his time served in Vietnam; and securing accommodations and auxiliary aids for a deaf prison inmate serving a life sentence in a federal penitentiary (for which the team received an “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee).
In January 2018, S&C lawyers filed two groundbreaking federal court cases seeking recognition of the U.S. citizenship of two children who were born abroad and whose married, LGBT parents used assisted reproductive technology. S&C’s lawsuits on behalf of these two families seek recognition of the U.S. citizenship of four-year-old Lucas, who lives in London and two-year-old Ethan, who, along with his twin brother Aiden, was born in Canada. The cases turn on whether a U.S. citizen who is identified as a parent on a birth certificate and is legally married to a child’s biological parent at the time of birth can confer U.S. citizenship on the child. In February 2019, the S&C team representation Ethan and his family won in the District Court and the State Department has recently appealed that ruling to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Both cases remain active.
Four S&C teams represented teenagers who had been separated from their parents at the U.S. border and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at a facility in Westchester County, New York. S&C lawyers advocated for the release and reunification of the children to the custody of their family members. Through dogged interactions with the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, we secured reunion for three of our four clients by August 2018. The fourth client, whose father was deported, has been released to the care of a sponsor. We continue to represent two of the clients, a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl from Guatemala, in their immigration cases and efforts to secure a juvenile visa.
In addition to becoming partners at S&C, HLS alumni who join the Firm go on to pursue a range of prestigious opportunities. S&C alumni who attended HLS serve as managing directors at major financial institutions; Assistant U.S. Attorneys; law school professors; and counsel at Fortune 500 companies including Google, NBCUniversal and Goldman Sachs.
Today, S&C continues to partner with HLS both in and out of the classroom. In 2012, the Firm endowed a visiting professorship at the law school, which has brought accomplished professors, such as Amy Cohen, Justin Driver, Helen Hershkoff, Laura Rosenbury, Hillary Sale, and George Triantis, to campus. The Firm sponsors many campus organizations, affinity groups and journals; this year, more than 65 S&C lawyers visited HLS to participate in classes, events and panels.
You can learn more about our presence at the law school on these pages. We hope to see you on campus.