Gary Sullivan is a graduate of The University of Alabama School of Law (J.D., summa cum laude, 1996). During law school, Professor Sullivan served as Senior Editor of the Alabama Law Review, was elected to Order of the Coif, and earned distinctions as a Hugo Black Scholar and recipient of the M. Leigh Harrison Award. He was also awarded a B.A. (Chemistry) from Huntingdon College (1992) and an M.B.A. from the Manderson Graduate School of Business at The University of Alabama (1994).
Professor Sullivan has decades of experience practicing law. His legal career began with Balch & Bingham LLP in 1996, and he was a founding member of Sullivan & Gray LLC (2006-2017). His practice and scholarly interests focus on bankruptcy, business and commercial litigation, creditor rights, real estate and trial advocacy.
Professor Sullivan serves as Director of the Trial Advocacy Program. His responsibilities include managing both the Coursework Track and Competition Track within the Program. For more information about the Trial Advocacy Program, click here.
In addition to his responsibilities managing the Trial Advocacy Program, Professor Sullivan enjoys teaching doctrinal courses focused primarily on the Bankruptcy Code and Uniform Commercial Code. Over the past decade and a half, his teaching has included Contracts, Bankruptcy, Business Bankruptcy, Secured Transactions, Sales, and Payment Systems.
Professor Sullivan serves in various roles supporting the State Bar and Faculty. In 2022, he was appointed Edition Editor for a special two-volume Bankruptcy Edition of The Alabama Lawyer. He has served as a panelist for the Alabama Bankruptcy Assistance Project (2019-2020), as a Member of the Alabama State Bar Committee for Amendments to the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (2016-2017), and as a Member of the ALI Article 9 Amendments Committee (2011-2012), as well as a Member of the Bankruptcy Litigation Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute (2011-present) and the ALI Asset Freezing Orders Committee (2013-2015). Within the Law School, Professor Sullivan continues to serve as Chairman of the Public Interest Committee (2017 – present). Outside of law, Professor Sullivan has served locally as a little league coach in recreational basketball and soccer leagues and he currently serves as Chairman of the Tennis Committee and a member of the Board of Advisors at NorthRiver Yacht Club.
Select Publications:
Subchapter V: A New Reorganization Model for Small Businesses, 84 Ala. Law. 30 (2023)
A Fresh Start to Bankruptcy Exemptions, 2018 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 335 (2018)
Bankruptcy and Unbundling: Oil and Water?, 77 Ala. Law. 344 (2016)
Lien Subordination in Municipal Bankruptcy: Viewing CAPEX Through the ‘Necessary Operating Expenses’ Lens of 928(B), 32 Oct. Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 34 (2013)
Purchasers Lacking Privity Overcoming ‘the Rule’ for Express Warranty Claims: Expanding Judicial Application of Common Law Theories and Liberal Interpretation of U.C.C. 2-318, 5 Drexel L. Rev. 49 (2012) (with Braxton Thrash)
Inevitably Imminent as ‘Exigent’? Impending Foreclosures as Grounds for Waiver of the Credit Counseling Requirement, 31 Nov. Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 30 (2012)
Alabama Tax Certificate Investors Beware: Negotiating Through the Labyrinth of, and Important Limitations to Recovering Money in, the Redemption Process, 73 Ala. Law. 416 (2012)
Select Reported Cases: Norfolk Southern Railway Co. v. Ala. Dept. of Rev., 2022 WL 3139962 (N. D. Ala. 2022); Ex Parte Valley National Bank, 297 So.3d 1155 (Ala. 2019); Green Tree Servicing LLC v. Matthews, 159 So.3d 72 (Ala. 2014); Green Tree-Al, LLC v Brown, 54 So.3d 404 (Ala. 2010); AmeriSource Corp. v. CRSX, Inc., 950 So. 2d 295 (Ala. 2006).
