Retired federal judge Eugene R. Sullivan, a St. Louis native, will be the keynote speaker for the Peoria County Bar Association's 98th Lincoln Memorial Banquet.

The annual black-tie-optional event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, in the Hotel Pere Marquette. Contact Linda Raineri at (309) 674-6049 or pcba@mtco.com for reservations.

A graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, Sullivan began his career as a clerk for Chief Judge M. C. Matthes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

Also a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served in the Army for five years as an Aurborne Ranger, instructor and jumpmaster. He received the Bronze Star and the Air Medal for action in Vietnam.

Sullivan practiced with the Patton Boggs firm in Washington, D.C., where he was a member of President Nixon's legal defense team during the Watergate investigation.

He was a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1974 to 1982, then general counsel to the Air Force in the Pentagon until 1986, when he became a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He was chief judge from 1990 to 1995.

Sullivan chairs the ethics committee of the West Point board of trustees and serves on the executive board of the Duke Law School Center for Law, Ethics and National Security. He heads the Gavel Consulting Group, a consulting firm of retired federal judges.