Bob Sullivan: 53 Years of Championing Equal Justice Under the Law

After 53 years, attorney Bob Sullivan still has a burning passion for getting to the truth and holding corporations responsible. Sullivan is senior partner with Sullivan, Papain, Block, McManus, Coffinas and Cannavo in New York City. He also is one of the attorneys responsible for the $25 billion New York settlement with tobacco companies 25 years ago. The largest of its kind at the time, the settlement still sets the standard when it comes to holding corporations accountable.

The Master Settlement Agreement was signed in 1998 by 50 states and two territories. Under the MSA, tobacco manufacturers are obligated to make annual payments to the settling states in perpetuity, so long as cigarettes are sold in the United States by companies that have settled with the states.

“It was a tremendous recovery,” says Sullivan, whose firm is 100 years old. “There are three things about this settlement that are important. First, it was a tremendous recovery financially. Second, and most importantly it got rid of all addictive cigarette advertising. Most significantly, it got the young away from the addictive advertising. Third, it exposed the tobacco executives for the frauds they were.

“The number of people the tobacco companies cost this country is unforgivable,” says Sullivan, who splits his time between Cutchogue, Garden City and New York City. “When those corporate executives stood up in hearings and said cigarettes aren’t addictive, they knew they were lying. Unfortunately, what happened to Big Tobacco didn’t cause a pause in the corporate greed in America. Lies for profit continue to this day in other corporations. Everyone likes to knock lawyers, but it is lawyers who stopped opioids and tobacco. I am proud to have been involved.”

Sullivan, whose parents and grandparents died of smoking-related issues, says that despite those enormous settlements, cases such as these are a tremendous risk and an uphill battle.

“We invested millions of dollars and years of litigation in the tobacco case,” says Sullivan, who remembers that at times they were concerned that the firm might go bankrupt before the case was resolved. “I don’t know of anything more important than eliminating smoking and its related diseases.”

Sullivan says he still has the same energy for fighting injustice that he did during the tobacco settlement.

“I have a personal hatred for what the tobacco companies did and the years they took from smokers and their families,”

Sullivan says. “My father smoked himself to death. They took eight years from him. It is my story, but it’s also the story from across America. They cited studies that they knew were a sham.”

One of the firm’s current efforts is to eradicate PFAS from firefighter bunker gear.  Having been general counsel for the Uniformed Firefighters Association for nearly 40 years, the firm was disgusted to learn that firefighter’s personal protective gear (“PPE”) was being manufactured with PFAS, a known carcinogen. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of man-made chemicals that are used in many products for water-proofing.  Unfortunately, they are also chemicals that last forever and bio-accumulate when they enter someone’s system. The industry has known for decades that these are carcinogens and used these substances, nevertheless.

Sullivan Papain, together with two other national firms, were retained by the International Association of Fire Fighters to address this nationwide issue.

“It is simply unacceptable and defies logic that our firefighters’ gear, which is meant to protect them, is making them sick,” says Sullivan. “The goal is to ensure that every firefighter in this country be given safe PPE. They deserve nothing less.”

Sullivan says that judgments such as the tobacco settlements helpin many ways, such as lower taxes, various programs that help the community and the end to harmful things such as cigarette ads.

“We don’t accept every case that is brought before us,” Sullivan explains. “A sham lawyer would do that. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Is it good for the country? Will it help millions of people?’ Some people may think lawyers are the problem, but we are the ones finding solutions.”

For example, he believes that lawyers will find a solution to America’s broken healthcare system.

“Anyone who suggests that someone shooting the United Healthcare CEO [Brian Thompson] was good is an idiot,” Sullivan says. “But, there is so much wrong with our healthcare system that it frustrates the hell out of you. I do believe we are in the infancy of the problem. It will probably take 10 or 15 years to fix the problem, but there will be a fix.”

While his primary motivator is to help those individuals being crushed by cigarettes, PFAS and other issues, he also takes pleasure in taking money from corporations.

“Corporations make money on the backs of people,” Sullivan explains. “We nail corporations to the wall. It is exciting, really exciting to hold them accountable. And, the money we win helps everyone. Going back to the tobacco settlement, New York State saves money on its treatment for those with smoking-related diseases. What saddens me is that corporations are still doing the same thing in China, Russia and South America. Why? Because their lawyers are not as good as those in the United States.”

He does think the corporations learned from the tobacco settlement.

“Corporations learned not to send emails, to cover things up better,” Sullivan says. “Ford Mustang had a problem with rear-end accidents. A bolt crashed into the gas tank and caused a fire. All they had to do was turn the bolt around. We learned that from emails and memos. They determined that if they did a recall it would cost one amount and it would be cheaper to pay [the occasional] settlement. All they learned is how to cover up better. That is why I do what I do.”

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.