Ronald L. Olson

Olson played halfback for the Drake University Bulldogs back when the Iowa school was in the NCAA’s Division I, so his current representation of the San Diego Chargers has a homecoming flavor, he said. “We had a winning season — we almost went to the Sun Bowl,” he recalled of his gridiron career. “Since then, I have represented the Broncos and the Redskins. When the Chargers called, I wasn’t a stranger to pro football.”

He leads the representation of the Chargers in the relocation of its National Football League franchise to Los Angeles. “We developed a strategy for them becoming the Los Angeles Chargers,” he said, “after having tried to make an arrangement with San Diego to keep the team there. When that didn’t work out, we went to Plan B.” In the running for two NFL slots in LA were the Chargers, the St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders. Olson’s client made the cut in January, as did the Rams last year. “I think the Raiders may go to Las Vegas, but that isn’t entirely clear yet,” he said.

The Chargers will play temporarily at the StubHub Center in Carson while the Rams build a stadium in Inglewood that will be home to both teams. It’s schedule to open in 2019. StubHub’s primary tenant is the LA Galaxy soccer team. Olson said the venue is smaller than most pro football stadiums. “It’s terrific,” he said. “You’re closer to the action. You hear the sounds up close. Of course I have season tickets.”

Olson and his partners also advise Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his philanthropist wife Dr. Priscilla Chan in a variety of matters including Facebook’s capital structure and its charitable arm, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. When CZI was formed in 2015, the couple pledged 99 percent of their Facebook stock towards the goal of “advancing human potential and promoting equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy.” Munger Tolles tax and corporate lawyers devised a unique structure for the initiative, making it a philanthropically oriented LLC. “That was very, very creative and it is one of a kind so far,” Olson said. “It gives them so much more flexibility and operating capability.”

“We believe that will be a model that other philanthropies will be inclined to look at,” Olson said. “In fact, we are already having others making inquiries.”

— John Roemer