U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who helped engineer the administration's legal war on terrorism and personally embodied the losses from Sept. 11, 2001, will resign this month.
Early years: Olson was born Sept. 11, 1940, in Chicago. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., where he received awards as the outstanding graduating student in both journalism and forensics. He received a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Career: Olson was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he practiced constitutional, media, commercial and appellate litigation. He served in the Reagan administration as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1981 to 1984. He later represented Reagan during the Iran-Contra scandal. He returned to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, where he practiced constitutional and appellate law and general litigation. Before rejoining the Justice Department in 2001, he successfully represented George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore cases involving the 2000 presidential election. He also assisted Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton and represented Whitewater figure David Hale during Senate hearings investigating the Clintons' role in the Arkansas land deal. Olson is the 42nd solicitor general of the United States. He was nominated by President Bush in 2001.
Family: Olson's wife, Barbara, a former federal prosecutor, congressional investigator, television commentator and author, was aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
In his words: My work in the Justice Department as been "exciting, inspiring and, at times, breathtaking."
ADVERTISEMENT
Web link: usdoj.gov
Compiled by Dianna Baumann
Sources: pfaw.org, findlaw.com, usatoday.com
