Legal News

Report: Stanford Taps Williams & Connolly?s Sullivan

By Ashby Jones

We’ve been wondering for a while now who Allen Stanford would tap to serve as his counsel in the SEC matter, but we figured we wouldn’t find out until investigators actually found the guy.

Well, the FBI found him yesterday outside Fredericksburg, Va. According to an SEC statement, the feds served him with the complaint, the memorandum of law filed with the complaint, the court order freezing his assets, and the court order appointing a receiver.

And we got the answer to our question. According to Legal Times, Stanford has hired superstar white-collar lawyer Brendan Sullivan, from Williams & Connolly, to serve as counsel. Sullivan (Georgetown, Georgetown Law), of course, is no stranger to high-profile white-collar matters. He represented Oliver North during Iran-Contra, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and former Cendant CEO Walter Forbes, and former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens during his grand jury investigation.

This isn’t the first time an entity known as Stanford will have teamed up with Brendan Sullivan. Sullivan’s son — also named Brendan — had a successful career as a pitcher at Stanford University during the 1990s. Sullivan was drafted by the San Diego Padres and made it as high as Triple A. Click here for a short bio on Sullivan the Younger.

Speaking of Stanford University, according to a recent WSJ story, Allen Stanford has long claimed that he is related to the Stanford family that founded the Palo Alto. Stanford University claims otherwise. When asked about the family tie, Allen’s father, James Stanford, said when Stanford Financial was first created his son hired genealogists to find out if he might be kin to the other Stanfords. “He said it might be good for public relations,” said James Stanford, who added that maybe there was a family connection “way, way back but not enough to say we were even kissing cousins.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).