Theodore Olson  Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Solicitor General (2001–2004) under President George W. Bush.  Theodore Olson was born in Chicago, the son of Yvonne Lucy (Bevry) and Lester W. Olson. He grew up in Mountain View, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from Los Altos High (1958). In 1962, Olson completed his undergraduate degrees in Communications and History at the University of the Pacific where he was a charter member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity chapter. He earned his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (1965). At Boalt, Olson served as a contributor to the "California Law Review". In 1965, Olson joined the Los Angeles, California, office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an Associate. In 1972, he was named Partner. From 1981 to 1984, Olson served as an Assistant Attorney General (Office of Legal Counsel) in the Reagan administration. While serving in the Reagan administration, Olson was Legal Counsel to President Reagan during the Iran-Contra Affair's investigation phase. Olson was also the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel when then President Ronald Reagan ordered the Administrator of the EPA to withhold the documents on the ground that they contained "enforcement sensitive information." This led to an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee that later produced a report suggesting Olson had given false and misleading testimony before a House subcommittee during the investigation. The Judiciary Committee forwarded a copy of the report to the Attorney General, requesting the appointment of an independent counsel investigation. Olson argued that the Independent Counsel took executive powers away from the office of the President of the United States and created a hybrid "fourth branch" of government that was ultimately answerable to no one. He argued that the broad powers of the Independent Counsel could be easily abused or corrupted by partisanship. In the Supreme Court Case Morrison v. Olson, the Court disagreed with Olson and found in favor of the Plaintiff and independent counsel Alexia Morrison. He returned to private law practice as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of his firm, Gibson Dunn. A high-profile client in the 1980s was Jonathan Pollard, who had been convicted of selling government secrets to Israel. Olson handled the appeal to United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.