Theodore B Olson

Theodore B. Olson, a leading Supreme Court litigator who built a sturdy reputation as a conservative power lawyer during the 1980s and ’90s, and then surprised colleagues and foes alike when he took up traditionally liberal causes like gay marriage and the children of undocumented immigrants, died on Wednesday November 13 2024 in Fairfax, Va. He was 84. Theodore B. Olson was a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office, a member of the firm's Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the Appellate and Constitutional Law Group and the firm's Crisis Management Team. Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984 he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965. Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the California Law Review and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific in 1962, Olson’s first two marriages, to Karen Beatie and Jolie Bales, ended in divorce. His third wife, the conservative commentator Barbara (Bracher) Olson, was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 to Los Angeles from Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked it, crashing it into the Pentagon and killing everyone aboard. In addition to Mrs. Booth Olson, whom he married in 2006, Mr. Olson is survived by his children, Kenneth and Christine Olson; his brother, John; and his sisters, Claudia Alt, Kirstin Cravens and Joan Hushahn.