July 7, 2004 – LAWFUEL – Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce the return of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson to the firm. He will rejoin the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office, serve as Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group, along with Washington, D.C. partner Miguel Estrada and Los Angeles partner Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., and lead the firm’s client crisis management team.
“Ted is one of the country’s most successful and sought-after appellate lawyers, and we are extremely honored to have him return to the firm,” said Managing Partner Ken Doran. “Ted has received well-deserved praise from liberals, constitutional scholars and conservatives alike for the high quality of his legal advocacy and the intellectual integrity that he brought to the Office of the Solicitor General.”
“Ted’s return to the firm will add a unique dimension to our ability to assist clients in developing a comprehensive approach to highly sensitive, large-scale crises,” added Doran. “He is uniquely qualified to work with clients to develop strategies to address their legal problems in a framework that addresses relevant social and policy concerns, while being sensitive to the media and other relevant constituencies.”
During his career, Olson has argued 41 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, 14 in private practice and 27 in government service. He served as Solicitor General of the United States from 2001 to 2004. In his term as Solicitor General, he participated in 26 arguments before the Supreme Court and won 20 of the 25 cases that have resulted in a decision on the merits, addressing nationally prominent issues, including two major telecommunication cases and antitrust, securities, Internet, environmental and presidential power cases, as well as the 2002 school voucher case and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform case.
Before serving as Solicitor General, Olson was a partner at Gibson Dunn, where he practiced as a trial and appellate lawyer from 1984 to 2001 in the Washington, D.C. office and from 1965 to 1981 in the Los Angeles office. During his time at Gibson Dunn, Olson pioneered novel approaches to a number of important legal issues, such as punitive damages, and became one of the best known appellate lawyers in the country. The cases he handled before his government service include challenges to the constitutionality of punitive damage awards, questions of state sovereign immunity and cases involving antitrust, civil rights, environmental and sentencing matters, as well as major securities cases. He was also known for his successful representation of George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore litigation stemming from the 2000 presidential election.
From 1981 to 1984, Olson served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during President Reagan’s first term. In that capacity, he was the executive branch’s principal legal adviser, responsible for providing legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the executive branch departments, preparing legal opinions on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions and assisting in formulating and articulating the executive branch’s position on constitutional issues, including separation-of-powers issues concerning the proper roles of the judicial, legislative and executive branches of the federal government and the relationship between the federal and state governments.
Olson is a fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral advocacy in the courtroom and constitutional law. He received his law degree in 1965 from University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall).
Olson stated, “It has been an enormous privilege and honor to serve as Solicitor General of the United States and to represent the United States and its citizens before the Supreme Court. But I am excited about the opportunity to return to my wonderful colleagues at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where I am looking forward once again to the challenge of private practice and the provision of strategic assistance to clients facing legal crises.”
