District Attorney David E. Sullivan
Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan was elected in November 2010 and a
ssumed office on Jan. 5, 2011.
He has been an attorney for more than 25 years, serving 17 years as a trial attorney and advocate. He has handled thousands of criminal and civil cases and tried criminal cases in Superior, District, Juvenile and Military Courts.
Sullivan started his law career in 1987 as a civilian trial attorney representing U.S. Army and Air Force service members in General and Special Courts-Martial in West Germany. He was the city attorney for Easthampton from March 1999 to 2002, when he was elected Register of Probate for Hampshire Probate and Family Court.
As Register of Probate, Sullivan chaired a technology committee for imaging and scanning filed documents, a system now used in the Probate Courts around the state. He helped establish mediation programs to mitigate conflicts between individuals and reduce court costs, and he established a website for the Probate Court to give the public access to resources and staff contacts. Sullivan is proud to have helped make the Hampshire Probate and Family Court more user-friendly and responsive for all citizens.
In 2008, he was one of two Massachusetts lawyers chosen to receive the Massachusetts Bar Foundation's President's Award for "extraordinary volunteerism, leadership, and commitment to increasing access to justice in Massachusetts."
Sullivan is a board member of the Governor's Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and a member of the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund Board of Directors.
He has been president of the Hampshire County Bar Association, Chairman of the Hampshire Elder Law Program and President of Western Massachusetts Shelter for Homeless Veterans. He has been an Advisory Board Member to the Northwestern District Attorney's Child Advocacy Center and Northampton Domestic Violence-Free Zone Committee and an Easthampton Inter-Faith Cot Shelter committee member.
He has been a youth soccer and basketball coach and continues to assist annually with the statewide MBA high school mock trial competition.
Sullivan graduated from Northeastern University Law School in 1986 and the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts in 1981.
He is married to Easthampton attorney Catherine Hancock and they have three children.