Sullivan’s practice area keeps her engaged

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Sheila Sullivan appreciates a good intellectual challenge, so it’s no wonder she feels right at home as a litigator specializing in insurance defense and civil rights defense.

“Working on cases is like a giant logic puzzle or an intellectual chess match that goes back and forth,” said Sullivan, an attorney with Bell, Moore & Richter SC in Madison “You need to be very methodical in your approach.”

Sullivan said litigation involves a lot of “give and take” and she enjoys those arguments, even when they occur only on paper.

“All my cases are challenging in different ways,” said Sullivan, who returned to Wisconsin and attended law school after working in government for several years on the East Coast. “There’s a lot of careful reading, thinking and then writing that needs to be done on all of these cases.”

Sullivan said insurance companies often will ask her to look at policies to see if something is covered and then she’ll write a brief based on her reading and research. For example, she had one case where a circuit court based its ruling on an appeal’s court decision. Sullivan took another look at the case and discovered a move yet to play: a statute the appeal’s court hadn’t considered.

“I was able to have the decision changed,” she said. “It taught me that you can never leave any stone unturned.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could have drinks with anyone, who would it be?
Sheila Sullivan: The president, whoever that happened to be at the time. It would be especially fun if we had the drinks at the White House.

WLJ: What activity could you spend hours doing outside of work?
Sullivan: Watching football, especially the Packers. I will watch every play or every Packer game, even the preseason ones. Of course, I am a Badger fan also.

WLJ: What was your favorite toy as a child?
Sullivan: The board game Clue. I loved the logic of figuring out ‘who dunit’ by eliminating the other suspects.

WLJ: What do you think is your biggest accomplishment?
Sullivan: Personally, I am proudest of being married to my husband, Frank, for almost 27 years, as well as being mom to four great children: Caleb, 20; Nathan, 17; Michael, 12; and Miranda, 9. Professionally, it was a great honor to be asked to take over as lead author for the State Bar’s “Wisconsin Insurance Law” book. I am even more in awe of Arnie Anderson since taking over the job. It is tough to keep up with the work even with the help of some great people in my office; I cannot imagine doing it by myself.

WLJ: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Sullivan: I wish I was better at telling jokes.

WLJ: If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Sullivan: I would live here in Wisconsin, though I might move my house to a large lakefront lot.

WLJ: What was the last book that you read?
Sullivan: The last book I completed was “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” which I just read for the fourth time. I have read the series to each of my children and the youngest is finally old enough to enjoy it. For my own reading pleasure, I recently started “Divergent.”