JOHN J. SULLIVAN

JOHN J. Sullivan, former U.S. deputy secretary of state and former U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington, D.C. and New York offices and co-lead of the firm’s National Security practice. He is also a distinguished scholar at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University and a distinguished fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. He serves as a contributor to CBS News and, as a leading authority on foreign affairs, is quoted frequently in international media.

Sullivan advises clients on global risk and foreign policy, as well as U.S. sanctions and export controls, international trade disputes and regulation, foreign investment, and other sensitive issues at the intersection of international commerce and national security policy. He is often consulted as an expert and has testified before Congress, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in that capacity.

In addition to his expertise in foreign policy and, in particular, U.S.-Russia relations, Sullivan has worked extensively on trade issues important to multinational companies doing business around the world, including as the U.S. deputy secretary of commerce.

Sullivan’s career spans four decades in public service in prominent diplomatic and legal positions under five U.S. presidents and in private law practice at Mayer Brown. Before rejoining the firm in January 2023, he was the U.S. ambassador to Russia from December 2019 to October 2022. During his tenure, he led the U.S. Embassy through the most challenging period in U.S.-Russia relations in generations.

Prior to his post in Moscow, Sullivan served for almost three years as the deputy secretary of state after a bipartisan 94-6 confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate in 2017. In this senior role, he was responsible for both the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy and the management of the State Department’s global operations. He was the acting secretary of state in March-April 2018, among the longest tenures in history of anyone in that position.

In private practice at Mayer Brown, which he first joined in 1993, Sullivan has been a member of the Supreme Court and Appellate practice and was a co-founder of the National Security practice. From 2010 to 2016, he served by appointment of the Obama Administration as chair of the U.S.Iraq Business Dialogue, a government advisory committee of business leaders on U.S. commercial relations with Iraq.

Previously, Sullivan held senior positions in the departments of Justice, Defense, and Commerce in two prior administrations. Until January 2009, he was the deputy secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush, following his service from 2005 to 2007 as the general counsel of the department. In Bush’s first term, he was appointed deputy general counsel of the Defense Department by Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Sullivan was counselor to Assistant Attorney General J. Michael Luttig in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Sullivan earned an AB from Brown University, and a JD from Columbia Law School.

The father of three children with his late wife Grace Rodriguez, Sullivan traces his Irish roots through his maternal grandparents from Co. Galway. His paternal great grandparents were from Co. Kerry.