Paul Sullivan was born in Missoula, Montana and moved to his mother's hometown of Bigfork at the age of two. He attended Bigfork Schools, including Bigfork High School where he was student body president, a state champion tennis player, and a National Merit Scholar. After high school, he attended The University of Montana on a Presidential Scholarship. While there, he was a student in the Davidson Honors College and an active member of The University of Montana Advocates. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy, as a University Scholar and one of a select number of distinguished graduates.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Law with a Stanziani Scholarship. While at Penn, he was a board member of the Unemployment Compensation Project and participated in the Criminal Defense Clinic providing legal representation to indigent defendants in Philadelphia. He also had the privilege to study trial advocacy under President Judge C. Darnell Jones, III. During law school, Paul spent his summers interning at The Law Office of Peter Leander in Bigfork where he had the opportunity to assist Mr. Leander with a variety of legal issues. After graduating from Penn, Paul returned to Bigfork to fulfill his lifelong dream of opening his own practice and providing legal services to the community he calls home.