Munger, Tolles & Olson name partner Ronald Olson’s first trial was far removed from the high stakes and boldface names with which he would become synonymous. He represented the wife of a firm client in a suit against her interior decorator. “The drapes weren’t right,” says Olson, summing up the 40-year-old case (he can’t remember who won). “We had a very modest practice,” he says of the then 10-lawyer Munger, Tolles, Hills & Rickershauser. “Big litigation wasn’t a part of it.”
In the ensuing years, nothing would be farther from the truth. Olson went on to represent movie studios in industry-redefining antitrust litigation and legislative initiatives, a consortium of oil companies in connection with the Exxon Valdez spill, and the Republic of the Philippines in efforts to retrieve assets from former president Ferdinand Marcos. Along the way, Olson, now 72, became a trusted adviser to a host of corporate power brokers. His client roster has included Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, Paramount Pictures Corporation chief Brad Grey, and entertainment industry mogul Barry Diller. “You build relationships with integrity and put some energy into them and a lot of good things happen,” Olson says.
