Murdoch’s News Corp Reportedly Hires Brendan Sullivan

Rupert Murdoch’s besieged News Corp. reportedly has retained white collar criminal defense superstar Brendan Sullivan, a senior partner of D.C.-based Williams & Connolly. Sullivan’s bio says that his “typical” clients include Fortune 500 companies involved in criminal investigations, litigation, or government regulatory matters. 

One particular area of Sullivan's practice that no doubt was of extreme interest to News Corp. is his defense of persons “caught up in the high-profile case,” such as the cases of Lt. Col. Oliver North and former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. “Both involved massive legal battles against large prosecutorial teams working at the direction of specially appointed ‘Independent Counsels’ with unlimited resources.” Sullivan’s bio also points out that in 2008-2009, he defended U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, whose case was dismissed when Sullivan and his team uncovered government misconduct that corrupted the trial.
 
In December 2009, a federal district court in California dismissed the options backdating indictment of Sullivan’s client, Dr. Henry Nicholas, the co-founder of Broadcom.
 
Other cases have involved “federal investigations and prosecutions of corporations and their senior executives in industries such as defense, healthcare, food production and distribution, agriculture, international trade, finance, securities, banking, and manufacturing. A recent civil case includes the successful defense of Dick Grasso, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, in litigation brought by the Attorney General of New York.”
 
In 2006, Legal Times identified him as "The Leading Lawyer in White Collar Criminal Defense" as chosen by the D.C. legal community.
 
Interestingly, the only publications listed on his bio are white collar criminal defense-related:
 

• White Collar Criminal Practice Grand Jury, Litigation and Administrative Practice Series - Criminal Law Course Handbook No. 137, 1985
• Techniques for Dealing with Pending Criminal Charges or Criminal Investigations, Litigation and Administrative Practice Series - Criminal Law Course Handbook Series No. 130, 1983
• Grand Jury Proceedings, Litigation and Administrative Practice - Criminal Law Course Handbook Series No. 121, 1981