Richard Joseph Sullivan
How Judge Sullivan rules, drawn from 23 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Sullivan left this court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Sullivan
Richard Joseph Sullivan was a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Sullivan received a commission on August 1, 2007. Judge Sullivan left the court on October 25, 2018 on appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
How Judge Sullivan decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Sullivan required a party claiming privilege to establish its elements with competent evidence rather than conclusory assertions, and compelled production when the documents concerned fee and collection procedures.
“neither the Defendants nor EEC establishes that any privilege applies to the collection agreement or firm manual”
He denied suppression after evaluating the officers' testimony and video evidence under the totality of circumstances and finding reasonable suspicion for the stop and frisk.
“the Court concludes that the stop and frisk of Torres was supported by the requisite reasonable suspicion”
Procedural preferences
Sullivan enforced pretrial disclosure boundaries by excluding trademark evidence first identified after discovery and the joint pretrial order.
“These submissions were inadequate to put eBay on notice of the New Marks.”
He allowed intervention when a bankruptcy ruling unexpectedly left noteholders without representation and their application caused no demonstrated prejudice to the multidistrict litigation.
“the motion to intervene mine pro tunc to the filing date of WTC’s action is GRANTED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For these reasons, the Court hereby DENIES the defendant’s motion in limine.”
“P & G’s request to compel Ultreo to disclose the protocols, data, and final results of the studies is hereby GRANTED.”
“plaintiffs’ motion for certification of an immediate appeal is DENIED.”
“the Court declines to abstain from exercising jurisdiction over this case and denies Defendants’ motion to dismiss.”
“For the reasons stated above, Defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted.”
“For the reasons stated above, Fulcrum’s motion for summary judgment is DENIED.”
“Village Fuel’s motion for attorneys’ fees is denied.”
“For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Travelers’ motion to dismiss.”
“Accordingly, the Court will adjudicate Defendant’s motion under Rule 12(c) and will consider neither the July 2 Email nor July 25 Letter. ... For the foregoing reasons, Defendant’s motion to dismiss the FAC is granted in part and denied in part.”
“the motion to intervene mine pro tunc to the filing date of WTC’s action is GRANTED.”
“Because neither Defendants nor EEC has established that the documents Plaintiff seeks are privileged, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT EEC shall produce those documents to Plaintiff by July 29, 2013.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The five sampled terminated matters included fraud, intellectual-property, civil-rights, contract, and criminal proceedings. Their filing-to-termination intervals were 285, 325, 410, 729, and 771 days, with a median of 410 days. This small opening-tenure sample does not represent the full caseload.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 4 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 2 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 4 | 2 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 1 |
| Mar 2024 | 1 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2023 | 1 | 3 |
| Sep 2022 | 1 | 4 |
| Mar 2022 | 1 | 1 |
| Sep 2021 | 3 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 3 | 7 |
| Sep 2020 | 2 | 6 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
A historical record
Judge Sullivan left this court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.