| Biography | John F. Olson is a founding partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Olson represents business organizations in corporate governance, corporate securities, corporate finance and merger and acquisition matters. He has counseled many boards of directors and board committees on governance issues and in assessing shareholder litigation, responding to business combination proposals and conducting internal investigations. He has represented firms and individuals before the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies in both regulatory matters and enforcement investigations. Mr. Olson is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Government Affairs. Mr. Olson served (2000 - 2005) as Chairman of the ABA Business Law Section's Committee on Corporate Governance, and as a member of the Presidential Task Force on Corporate Responsibility appointed by the President of the ABA. Previously, he was Chairman of the ABA's Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities (1991-1995). Mr. Olson chaired the Business Law Section's Task Force on Regulation of Insider Trading, which produced a comprehensive report on U.S. insider trading law, and chaired the Task Force which produced the third (2001) and fourth (2004) editions of The Corporate Director's Guidebook. He served for eighteen years as a member of and liaison to the ABA's Committee on Corporate Laws, and served as a member of the Council and of the Publications Board of the Section. Mr. Olson is a member of the Executive Council of the Federal Bar Association Securities Committee, served for nine years on the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange and was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the National Association of Securities Dealers. He was a Founding Trustee of the American College of Investment Counsel. He served on a select committee of leading securities lawyers, appointed by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which drafted insider trading legislation introduced in the United States Congress. In 2006, Mr. Olson led a team of the firm's lawyers that advised the Board of the American Red Cross on a comprehensive audit of its governance practices. He has also advised the United States Olympic Committee and a number of other nonprofit organizations on governance issues. In both 2010 and 2011, based on BTI Consulting's independent surveys of 200 corporate general counsel, Mr. Olson was named a national Client Service All Star for his "true thought leadership; innovation; creativity applied to the client; focused, practical problem-solving; valued counsel; responsiveness and accessibility; total commitment to the client". In November 2011, Washingtonian Magazine named Mr. Olson as one of Washington's Top Lawyers for securities law. For the past three years (2009-2011), Mr. Olson has been selected by the National Association of Corporate Directors and Directorship magazine as one of the "Directorship 100: The Most Influential People in the Boardroom." He has been named by the International Financial Law Review as a Leading Lawyer in US Mergers & Acquisitions, has been listed every year since 2007 in Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers by Who's Who Legal and is regularly ranked one of the top securities advisory attorneys in the District of Columbia by Chambers USA. Mr. Olson was named The Corporate Governance Law Lawyer of the Year for 2012 by The Best Lawyers in America® and has been listed for his corporate, securities, and governance work in every edition published since its inception. In 2004, Mr. Olson was identified by Legal Times as one of the "10 Leading Securities Attorneys" in Washington, D.C. A frequent lecturer at legal and business seminars, Mr. Olson co-chairs various seminars on an annual basis. He is on the planning committees for the San Diego Securities Regulation Institute and the Practising Law Institute's Annual Securities Regulation Institute. He is the author of more than 100 articles and a member of the editorial advisory boards for a variety of securities and corporate law publications. Mr. Olson is the co-author of Director and Officer Liability: Indemnification and Insurance, published by West Publishing (revised 2002) and has edited several other books on securities law issues. Mr. Olson was the Distinguished Visiting Practitioner in Residence at Cornell Law School in 2003, and from 2005 through 2007 taught corporate governance at Northwestern University School of Law. He is currently a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching advanced seminars in securities regulation and governance of nonprofit organizations. Mr. Olson serves on the Board of Directors of the Frederick B. Abramson Memorial Foundation, a not-for-profit charitable organization that provides scholarships for disadvantaged high school graduates going on to college, and as an emeritus board member of the Washington Performing Arts Society. He is a member of the International Reference Team for Company Law Reform in South Africa. Publications Considerations for Public Company Directors in the 2012 Proxy Season, Client Alert, Jan 3, 2012 The Model Business Corporation Act and Corporate Governance: An Enabling Statute Moves Toward Normative Standards , Article, Mar 1, 2011 Proxy Access Litigation and Next Steps, Client Alert, Oct 8, 2010 Observations on Key Corporate Governance Impacts of Dodd-Frank, Article, Sep 15, 2010 South Africa moves to a global model of corporate governance but with important national variations, Article, Aug 18, 2010 Considerations for Public Company Directors in the 2010 Proxy Season, Client Alert, Feb 1, 2010 The Aspen Institute Statement: "Overcoming Short-termism", Client Alert, Sep 9, 2009 The Need for a Principled Approach to Compensation Reform, Article, Aug 7, 2009 SEC Proposes Rules on "Say On Pay" for TARP Recipients, Proposes Enhanced Corporate Governance Disclosures and Proxy Solicitation Rule Changes, and Approves Final Rule on Broker Discretionary Voting, Client Alert, Jul 2, 2009 Webcast Briefing: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Webcast, Jun 19, 2009 SEC Proposes Proxy Access Rules, Client Alert, May 20, 2009 |