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Dennis Mullins ’81
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Dennis Mullins ’81
Senior Partner, Mendes and Mount, LLP
Driven to Succeed
What he looks for in a new hire:
"I look for someone who carries themselves confidently and can think critically. In law, it’s always important to have a natural skepticism."
Advice to students:
"Take all the English classes you can, because your success hinges on your mastery of the written word.”
Achievement has long been important to Dennis Mullins ’81. “I wanted to be successful,” he says. “I knew I was going to be the first member of my family to go to college and have a professional career.”
Despite Mr. Mullin’s ambitions, his path to a Manhattan law office overlooking Times Square was anything but straight and easy. Mr. Mullins, the son of a volunteer firefighter, whose family has a long tradition of public service, earned his associate’s degree in criminal justice from Nassau County Community College. He pursued his bachelor’s degree, ultimately transferring to Adelphi with one year of course work remaining. Even then, he was constantly juggling school and work.
“After class, I was always running off campus to some job,” he recalls. “I used to study whenever I had a few minutes’ time, but I was really driven by the thought of failure.”
After Adelphi, he enrolled immediately in law school. Mr. Mullins succeeded in finishing his Juris Doctor in three years, despite transferring in the middle of his program from Oklahoma City University to Golden Gate University. In 1984, he returned to the East Coast to accept a job offer from the New York firm Mendes and Mount.
In contrast to his educational career, his professional life has been much more linear. Mr. Mullins has worked for the same firm for nearly 25 years, and today serves as a practice group leader for the Professional Liability group. Often representing foreign insurers, including Lloyd’s of London, he heads a legal team responsible for coordinating the roles of the many firms who are insured with his clients, often buying towers of coverage that can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition to working with the firms that buy such coverage, Mr. Mullins works with their counsel and coordinates the positions of dozens of companies who will subscribe to such significant coverage.
“As the coverage needed by large law firms would be unavailable from any single insurer, we act as the central coordinator for the insurers that allows them to speak with one voice to these large firms when they have a claim for malpractice asserted against them.”
When he’s not working, Mr. Mullins serves as the president of the Men’s Association of Garden City High School, which raises funds to support various student programs. He and his wife have three successful children.
“I always knew what I wanted; I was passionate about it,” he says. “These days, I try hard to instill that same passion and hunger in my kids.”
Contact
For additional information about alumni benefits and services, please contact:
The Office of Alumni Relations
Adelphi University
Levermore Hall, Room 205
1 South Avenue
P.O. BOX 701
Garden City, NY 11530-0701
p - 516.877.3470
f - 516.877.6890
e - alumni@adelphi.edu
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