The John E. Sullivan Lecture

Lecture History

The John E. Sullivan Lecture was established in honor of Professor Emeritus John Edward Sullivan, a dedicated teacher and scholar who was appointed to the Law School faculty in 1953 and who also served as acting dean and academic dean during his tenure. The Sullivan Lecture is presented each academic year by a distinguished legal scholar who addresses a matter of significance to the Law School and to the greater legal community.

The Sullivan Lecture Series is made possible through an endowment established by Herbert and Margith Kunmann, friends and benefactors of Capital University Law School. Their son, Edmond J. Kunmann, is a 1985 graduate of Capital Law School.

The endowed lecture has attracted some of the nation’s leading legal scholars and practitioners, including Erwin Chemerinsky, Robert M. Cover, Lee C. Bollinger, Owen M. Fiss, Paul Carrington, Eleanor Holmes Norton, The Hon. Louis H. Pollak, Elizabeth Bartholet, G. Edward White, and Randy Barnett.

Past Lecturers

• 2023 - Robert J. Cottrol, Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School
• 2022 - Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, Emerita, New York Law School
• 2021 - Donald F. McGahn II, Practice Leader Government Regulation, Jones Day & Former White House Counsel
• 2019 - Hugh Collins, Vinerian Professor of English Law, Emeritus, University of Oxford Faculty of Law
• 2018 - Emily Bazelon, Staff Writer at The New York Times Magazine and Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School
• 2017 - William N. Eskridge, Jr., John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School
• 2016 - William P. Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
• 2015 - Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, University of Pennsylvania Law School
• 2014 - David Cole, The Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy, Georgetown University Law Center
• 2013 - The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• 2013 - The Honorable Alex Kozinski, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• 2011 - Richard A. Epstein, James Parker Hall Distinguished Professor, Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School  and Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at the New York University
• 2010 - Margaret Jane Radin, Henry King Ransom Professor of Law at the University of Michigan
• 2009 - Vincent A. Blasi, Corliss Lamont Professor of Civil Liberties at Columbia Law School and the James Madison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia
• 2008 - Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
• 2007 - Gerald Torres, Bryant Smith Chair, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• 2006 - Randy Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center   
• 2005 - Erwin Chemerinsky, Alston & Bird Professor of Law, Duke University  
• 2004 - Barbara Bennett-Woodhouse, Director for the Center on Children and Families and the David H. Levin Chair in Family Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law   
• 2003  - Thomas D. Morgan, Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law, The George Washington University Law School  
• 2002 - The Honorable Diane P. Wood, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit  
• 2001 - Michael H. Shapiro, Dorothy W. Nelson Professor of Law, University of Southern California Law School 
• 2000  - Paul Carrington, Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
• 1999 - Richard B. Stewart, Emily Kempin Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
• 1998 - Elizabeth Bartholet, Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
• 1997 - Julius L. Chambers, Chancellor, North Carolina Central University
• 1996 - Jesse H. Choper, Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law
• 1995 - The Honorable Louis H. Pollak, Senior Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• 1994 - Owen M. Fiss, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
• 1993 - The Honorable Nathanial R. Jones, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• 1992  - The Honorable Edward R. Becker, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• 1991 - Robert M. O'Neil, Director, Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression and Professor University of Virginia School of Law
• 1990 - Michael J. Perry, Howard J. Trienens Chair in Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• 1989 - Eleanor Holmes Norton, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• 1988 - Lee C. Bollinger, Professor of Law, University of Michigan
• 1987 - G. Edward White, John Barbee Minor Professor of Law and History, University of Virginia School of Law
• 1986 - Willard H. Pedrick, Professor of Law Emeritus, Arizona State University
• 1985 - The Rev. Peter Newman Brooks, Professor, Cambridge University
• 1984 - Robert M. Cover, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
• 1983 - John W. Wade, Dean and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Vanderbilt University School of Law
• 1982 - Thomas L. Shaffer, Professor of Law, Washington and  Lee University School of Law
• 1981 - The Honorable Ruggero J. Aldisert, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• 1980 - Robert B. McKay, Director, Program on Justice, Society and the Individual for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies
• 1979 - William Stringfellow, Theologian and Attorney