Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson will be the featured speaker at Ave Maria School of Law’s “A Conversation With” lecture series on April 14 in Naples. Olson, who is a partner with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, in Washington, D.C., also will receive a medal of honor for national excellence from the Law School.
“We are extremely privileged to welcome a speaker of Mr. Olson’s stature and grateful that he is able to break away from several U.S. Supreme Court cases he is arguing to deliver this talk,” said Eugene Milhizer, acting dean of Ave Maria School of Law in a prepared statement. “Mr. Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate advocates and the kind of lawyer that our students aspire to become.”
The presentation will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, 280 Vanderbilt Beach Rd.
Olson’s presentation is the third of a three-part lecture series that began in February to introduce members of the southwest Florida community to Ave Maria School of Law, which will relocate to Naples, Florida this summer. The February lecture featured Ave Maria School of Law Board Chairman Thomas Monaghan and Starling Hendriks, president of the Collier County Women’s Bar Association. The March lecture was given by retired Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor, who will join the Law School’s faculty in 2010.
Olson was Solicitor General of the United States from 2001-2004, serving as the government’s principal advocate in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also held the position of Assistant Attorney General in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel from 1981-1984. Except for those two intervals of government service, Olson has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since 1965. 
Olson has argued more than 50 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, and prevailed in more than 75 percent of those arguments. His practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and resolution of major legal crises occurring at the federal/state, criminal/civil and domestic/international levels. 
He has twice received the United States Department of Justice’s Edmund J. Randolph Award, named for the first Attorney General, its highest award for public service and leadership. He also has been awarded the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court, on behalf of that Department. 
A Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Olson has been called one of America’s Most Influential Lawyers by the National Law Journal.  He 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, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. 

Source: Ave Maria School of Law