John E. Sullivan JD

John E. Sullivan III is a founding member of the Beachwood, Ohio law firm of Sullivan & Sullivan, Ltd. He graduated from Boston College in 1980; from the University of Texas School of Law in 1984; and is admitted to practice in Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Tax Court, and other federal courts. Mr. Sullivan was named one of the “Top 100 Attorneys” in the United States by Robb Report’s Worth Magazine (December 2005). His practice focuses on asset protection, asset recovery, and estate and business planning. Mr. Sullivan devises complex asset protection plans (which often use onshore and offshore trusts and companies and U.S. exempt property laws), and also prepares more traditional estate plans. He has represented debtors and creditors in various commercial litigation settings; parties in civil and criminal offshore trust litigation; and parties to complex civil racketeering (RICO) cases arising out of alleged fraudulent transfers and money laundering. He also represents taxpayers in voluntary offshore compliance cases, and sometimes co-counsels with white collar criminal defense counsel in offshore cases targeted by the government for investigation or prosecution. Mr. Sullivan is a principal co-author of the Ohio Asset Management Modernization Act (2012), which allows for Ohio asset protection trusts and which made other changes to Ohio’s trust, estate, and debtor-creditor laws, and served on the Ohio bar committee that drafted Ohio’s trust decanting law. He frequently lectures on debtor-creditor and asset protection matters and has written numerous articles on these topics. Works he has authored or co-authored have been favorably cited or quoted by at least 3 state courts of appeal (in California, Colorado, and Ohio) and 1 federal bankruptcy court (in the Western District of New York). He received the Cleveland Estate Planning Council’s 2013 Exceptional Service Award for his work on the Ohio Asset Management Modernization Act (2012).