Vera Sullivan

Vera Sullivan

Vera Sullivan, M.A., has worked in the legal industry for 31 years, specializing in career and outplacement counseling, diversity recruiting, and business development coaching.

Vera Sullivan

Vera Sullivan, M.A., has worked in the legal industry for 31 years, specializing in career and outplacement counseling, diversity recruiting, and business development coaching.

During the last 10 years, Vera has worked tirelessly at advancing the cause of diversity recruiting, through her own placement work and through speaking engagements.

Vera is also nationally known for her career and outplacement counseling work. In 1979, she founded Vera Sullivan Associates, a firm specializing in career and outplacement counseling, sales training, and recruiting for the legal profession. She served as company president until 1998; in this position, she counseled, coached, and trained over 5,000 attorneys and other professionals from corporations, major New York law firms, non-profit organizations, academia, and professional associations, including the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, The New York County Lawyers Association, and The National Association of Law Placement. Vera also served on the Bar Association Lawyers in Transition Committee in the early 1990s and conducted pro-bono job search seminars for terminated attorneys. She was featured in The Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York, and Of Counsel, and appeared on Bloomberg Financial News. Vera produced a video and workbook, The New Lawyer’s Rainmaking Strategy, which was filmed on site at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York during her presentation there. Also during that time, she was an active member of The Career Specialists Network and the International Association of Personnel Women (IAPW).

In 2000, Vera founded and was the Director of the In-House and Diversity Attorney Practice at Sivin Tobin Associates, as she recognized a need in corporate America for a more diverse workforce. While at the firm, Vera specialized in identifying and placing diversity attorneys at Chief Counsel, Associate/Assistant General Counsel, Senior Counsel, and Counsel levels.

Vera has been actively involved in Corporate Counsel Women of Color, The Minority Corporate Counsel Association, The Hispanic Bar Association New York Chapter and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Minorities In The Profession Committee. She co-authored an article for Diversity and The Bar, “How To Be A Successful In-House Attorney.” She also organized and moderated a hugely successful program at the Bar Association which attracted more than 200 attorneys, “Navigating the In-House Arena: Becoming and Being A Successful In-House Attorney” which received rave reviews from both panelists and audience alike. Vera was a speaker at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association Conference ( MCCA) in October 2002, a roundtable moderator at the MCCA Conference in 2003 and also moderated a seminar with general counsel and in-house speakers, “Best Practices For Grooming Minorities For Broader Roles” for MCCA’s 2004 Conference. Most recently, Vera was interviewed and quoted in DiversityInc. Magazine.

Vera earned her M.A. in Counseling from New York University in 1977 and has a B.A. from Hunter College. Vera served as the Director of Career Counseling and Placement at New York Law School for two years.

Vera’s satisfied clients have been Fortune 500 corporations and top tier New York law firms. Clients have praised Vera for her high ethical standards, her trustworthiness, and her ability to inspire and motivate attorneys. Her method is to become a partner with her client in order to advance their career or overcome a career challenge. Vera is a results-oriented coach with very hands-on approaches for follow through. She creates a pathway to success and devises individualized tactics in order to achieve specific results. Vera has a wide network and lots of resources at her disposal and her optimistic and dynamic coaching and counseling have been highly acknowledged by many attorneys.