Tulane Law School’s emphasis on international law, public service and learning by doing is a natural fit with Sullivan & Cromwell’s approach to the practice of law.
Many of the Firm’s matters have a significant cross-border component; our international practice is further bolstered by our network of offices in New York, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., Beijing, Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Sydney. The Firm has maintained a presence in Asia for nearly a century, and has been advising clients in Latin America for more than 100 years. The firm is also active in Africa, Australia, Canada, the Middle East and throughout Europe.
Both Tulane Law and S&C are active proponents of pro bono work—and as alumni of the first law school in the country to require pro bono service, Tulane Law graduates will find an equally strong commitment to pro bono work at Sullivan & Cromwell. In 2018, the Firm's lawyers and staff devoted more than 63,000 hours to a range of pro bono activities. Recent matters include representing an LGBT rights activist from Guinea in his claim for asylum on the grounds that he would face persecution on account of his political opinion and perceived sexual orientation; advising Global Health Corps, a non-profit organization dedicated to mobilizing a global community of emerging leaders to build the movement for health equity, on enterprise legal risk management issues; representing indigent defendants in federal criminal cases through the Criminal Justice Act Panel; assisting two sisters who are nationals of Honduras in filing for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status ("SIJS"); and representing an eight-year-old boy classified with autism in an administrative hearing seeking certain special education services.
S&C’s approach to professional development includes not only robust formal training and mentorship programs, but also a focus on early responsibility and on-the-job training. This approach, which ties in to the Firm’s emphasis on providing its associates with generalist training and broad experience, mirrors Tulane’s recent creation of an innovative “boot camp” to teach lawyering skills in a hands-on environment.
Several S&C partners are actively involved with continuing education programs hosted by Tulane Law. This year, partner and co-head of the Firm’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Group Keith Pagnani, and partner and co-head of the Firm's Corporate Governance and Activism Practice Melissa Sawyer, took part in a panel at the law school's 31st annual Corporate Law Institute.