Donald P. Sullivan is a Principal in the San Francisco, California, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Mr. Sullivan has more than 20 years of experience defending and counseling employers, as well as fiduciaries and sponsors of employee benefit plans, in state and federal courts and before state and federal agencies, including the United States Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and California’s Departments of Industrial Relations and Fair Employment and Housing.
In his employee benefits practice, Mr. Sullivan regularly advises and represents both pension and welfare benefit plans and their fiduciaries in disputes involving alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, medical necessity of treatments and appropriate levels of care, application of managed care contracts with providers, miscalculation of benefits and provider reimbursement rates, and investigations by the Department of Labor. In his employment practice, Mr. Sullivan defends clients in cases alleging violations of the California Labor Code related to the payment of wages, as well as in lawsuits alleging discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age and disability in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and federal statutes, including Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA. He has extensive experience defending both single-plaintiff and class action ERISA and California wage and hour lawsuits. Integral to Mr. Sullivan’s practice are the privacy protections afforded to individuals under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Mr. Sullivan’s interest and commitment to the employment and employee benefits practice has very deep roots. In college, he worked for the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining for Washington, D.C. He worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while in law school. After law school, he began representing employers and management in employment and labor disputes, while developing a sub-specialty in employee benefits, ERISA, and healthcare. Mr. Sullivan was a law clerk for the Honorable Everett A. Martin, Fourth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, 1996-1997. Before joining Jackson Lewis, Mr. Sullivan practiced in the Chambers USA awarding-wining labor and employment group of a national Philadelphia-based law firm.
