News Article

ATLANTA—Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, is pleased to announce that Michael Sullivan has been appointed the new Managing Member of the firm’s Atlanta office, effective May 1, 2011.

In this role, Sullivan leads a team of more than 60 attorneys and 50 staff members. He succeeds Clinton Richardson, who is retiring from the role to spend more time with his active corporate legal practice. 

Richardson will also remain active as an elected member of Womble Carlyle’s firm-wide Management Committee and as head of the firm’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Team. He is also looking forward to contributing more time as a director to the Southern Capital Forum, the region’s leading private equity and venture capital trade association, and to completing a 5^th edition of his Growth Company Guide – Investors, Deal Structures, Legal Strategies, a critically acclaimed series on company finance for growing companies and venture investors.

“We are thrilled to have someone as talented as Michael take on the Atlanta Managing Member role.” Richardson said. “He is a great lawyer and will represent us well as we continue to grow our firm’s presence in Atlanta. Michael’s top-flight leadership skills will serve the firm well and enhance our ability to deliver premier services to our clients and the business community we serve.”

In his practice, Michael Sullivan provides senior-level strategic guidance in mass tort product liability litigation and other large-scale commercial litigation. Sullivan brings nearly three decades of experience in “bet-the-company” cases. He serves in the role of “outside General Counsel” or Coordinating Counsel, providing big-picture advice to craft successful litigation strategies, increase efficiencies and contain costs. Michael collaborates with clients on a wide range of high-end business problems, including mass tort litigation. He is also part of the leadership team in the firm’s Product Liability Group.

“I am honored to step into the role that Clint Richardson has so capably filled. He has had and will continue to have a tremendous impact on me and the other lawyers in our firm by his leadership of the office and as a leader in the Atlanta venture capital arena,” Sullivan said. “Under Clint’s leadership Womble Carlyle has thrived. I look forward to building on the excitement and energy he brought to this position, and toward continuing to grow Womble Carlyle’s presence in the Atlanta community.”

 

Womble Carlyle is a full-service business law firm with a focus on innovative solutions to client needs. The firm supports the Association of Corporate Counsel in the ACC Value Challenge, which seeks to better align legal services with the needs of corporate clients.

The firm is located in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions, and serves clients nationally and globally, with more than 550 attorneys in twelve offices: Atlanta; Charleston and Greenville, S.C.; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Washington, D.C.; Tysons Corner, Va.; Baltimore; and Wilmington, Del.

In the community, the firm is the first law firm to receive the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Corporate Leadership Award as well as the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Freedom Award.