Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
By Barbara Rabinovitz
June 22, 2009
BOSTON-Gone are the bright lights and the TV cameras beamed on his every gesture, the microphones catching his every word, the crush of reporters recording his announcements of arrests, indictments, convictions and all the other actions that are the province of a U.S. attorney.
Now it’s just attorney Michael J. Sullivan, without the U.S. before his title, and he seems quite content out of the limelight and in charge of Ashcroft Sullivan in downtown Boston.
The “Ashcroft” in the firm name belongs to former U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who earlier this year named four ex-USAs to head up offices in Boston, St. Louis and Dallas and Austin, Texas, as part of his Ashcroft Law Firm and Ashcroft Group consulting business.
Sullivan’s has been an impressive career climb for a native Bostonian who grew up in the sleepy suburb of Holbrook.
He went on to graduate from Boston College and Suffolk University Law School, open a private practice in Holbrook, win election as a state representative from Abington and then, in 1995, secure an appointment as Plymouth County district attorney.
Six years later, he was ensconced on the top floor of the Moakley U.S. Courthouse in South Boston, presiding over the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts.
‘A sea change’
Out of that office for the past two months, Sullivan has had some time to reflect on his record as U.S. attorney here.
“My biggest disappointment is we were not able to capture James ‘Whitey’ Bulger,” he says, referring to the legendary South Boston gangster wanted for murder, racketeering, extortion and other crimes that catapulted him into the No. 2 spot (after Osama bin Laden) on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Criminals. “It frustrated me somewhat that there was a fair amount of misinformation out there that the government wasn’t interested in capturing him, [and] that’s certainly been a disappointment.”
As for the achievement of which he is most proud as a former USA, Sullivan touts the work his office did in the area of health-care-fraud enforcement.
“Beyond the specific cases we did and the record recoveries we achieved, I am even more proud of the fact that that work has led to substantial changes in industry practice ... principally in pharmaceuticals but also medical devices,” he says. “There’s been a sea change in the way the industry has approached relationships with its sales force and the medical community; there’s a lot more transparency with regard to those relationships.”
Now that he no longer has to appear as a prosecutor before the federal judges of this district, Sullivan is asked if he misses the chief judge, Mark L. Wolf, whom he tangled with on occasion over the types of crimes being investigated by his office and who, in 2002, threatened to hold Sullivan in contempt when he failed to appear in court because he was at a dental appointment.
Emitting a chuckle at the question, Sullivan has this to say about Wolf: “He’s the chief judge, and in that role I would ask him to do the swearing-in of the new assistant U.S. attorneys. In doing that, you saw the real sincerity in Judge Wolf’s interest in the Department of Justice and also his great appreciation of the role of the assistant U.S. attorneys. I was always impressed and moved by his comments at the swearing-in ceremonies.”
Sullivan acknowledges that the two had their disagreements “on occasion, but hopefully when we would disagree we did it in a very respectful way.”
‘No announcements right now’
In this newest phase of his legal career, Sullivan likens the Ashcroft approach to law practice to that of a physician who has a specialty in acute care, as opposed to a primary care doctor.
“We see ourselves as not in a long-term relationship [with a client] but as addressing the specific problem that the client is having and getting it resolved in the shortest possible time,” he explains.
Sullivan expects that the preponderance of his clients will be senior corporate executives who “find themselves facing challenges with government regulation and government oversight” and who will be “specifically but not exclusively” in the health-care area.
Turning to the topic of Sullivan’s political persuasion, a reporter reminds him that he has been mentioned as a possible GOP candidate for another kind of public office, perhaps as governor or as a U.S. senator. Would he like to make any announcements about a run for office? he is asked.
Again there is laughter, and then he responds: “No, I’m having a lot of fun doing what I’m doing right now. I’m really excited about the prospects of advancing the Ashcroft firm and the interests of its clients. So, no, no announcements right now.”