The feeling starts to seep in right past the Riverhead circle. The car seems to shift into autopilot and drift on a bed of clouds.
It cruises over the bridge, takes the right onto Route 25, past Small Holdings Farm and the Magic Fountain, the peninsula plotting its course. The salt hits your nose right around Mattituck and all is right. This is the North Fork … and this is Robert Sullivan’s bliss.
“As soon as you get past that circle, all your stress just floats away,” Sullivan said. “You can just feel it blowing life into your sails. Even in the winter. If you can’t relax on the North Fork, then you can’t relax.”
A weekend escape to Cutchogue on the East End is a well-earned reward for this 78-year-old trial lawyer who heads up the Long Island-based law firm Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo, P.C. It employs 40 attorneys and 100 employees total, with offices in Garden City, Cutchogue, New York City, and Hackensack, New Jersey.
The firm, which has morphed in name over the decades, is celebrating its 100th year in 2024. Sullivan has been there for 52 of those.
And get this — he still goes into the office four days a week.
“I’m never hanging it up,” said Sullivan, who has personally tried more than 300 cases. “It’s something that drives me. I love working. I love coming into the office. We have great people working for us from all over Long Island and beyond. And I love the work we do helping the people in our community.”
Sullivan, who prefers that you call him “Bob,” started his legal career in the early 1970s, clerking for Harry H. Lipsig, a legendary New York City trial lawyer who recognized the drive and talent of the young Sullivan and made him a partner shortly thereafter.
Raised in New Hyde Park, Sullivan is a Long Island guy at heart, and he prides himself on grit,an old-fashioned work ethic, and a deep connection to his community.
When you try to get him to talk about the eye-popping settlements the firm has won — recovering more than $2 billion just in the last 10 years for injured individuals and families —he pivots, thinking instead of the work they’ve done for the families of 9/11 first responders who were either killed or have been diagnosed with illnesses related to the terrorist attacks and the aftermath.
In the wake of the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, Sullivan and the firm represented 362 injured firefighters and the families of fallen firefighters in the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, obtaining more than $265 million in awards pro bono, waving more than $40 million in legal fees.
“People get devastated by incidents that are often the fault of other individuals, so our job is to try to keep families together, to keep them financially secure as they navigate these tough times,” Sullivan said. “Who else would fight for them? Who else would ensure their kids can go to college, live a normal life, heal, and make them whole again? We give a voice to victims when no one else will.”
Sullivan is also proud of the firm’s work representing New York State in its litigation against the nation’s major tobacco companies. The lawyers from Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo, P.C. helped the state obtain a historic $25 billion recovery sum while also bringing about changes to the ways tobacco can be marketed and advertised.
“It was a landmark case and has been credited with reducing underage smoking across the state and contributing to the trend of younger generations smoking less and less as the years go on,” he said. “It was also a reminder to all of us that corporate greed will not be tolerated at the expense of the health and safety of our children.”
Sullivan’s heard all the critiques, criticisms and negative jokes over the years about the field of personal injury law. The shark persona and ambulance-chasing stigma will always provide fodder for the haters, but he said he wants people to think of this field of law with a different perspective, one rooted in benevolence and a desire to help the working men and women in our society.
“When I think of all the firefighters, police officers, even the mechanics and the municipal blue-collar workers that we’ve represented and helped over the years, I feel like we owe it to these public servants to look out for them,” he said. “A lot of people have made sacrifices for us and our communities, and it’s our responsibility to step up to the plate and do something for them in their time of need.”
And even with all these successes, Sullivan still chooses to stay on Long Island over everywhere else.
“It’s the best, nowhere else like it,” he said. “We have so many great spots to visit up and down the Island, one town after the other, it never ends.”
Breakfast at Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck, dinner at Red Rooster Bistro in Cutchogue, a summer sunset meal on the deck at Claudio’s in Greenport — burger and fries, please — are his favorites.
Taking the boat out on Peconic Bay with his family (he has six children, three grandchildren and one on the way) and a gathering with good friends at home level-sets his life.
His favorite pastime? A long walk with his wife Jackie at the parks on the North Fork.
“She makes every day worthwhile,” he said. “I’m a lucky guy.”
