Ronald L. Olson

Los Angeles

Litigation & Corporate

When Ron Olson was asked to represent six Yuma, Ariz., irrigation districts in negotiations over how to divide the dwindling supply of Colorado River water, he was very excited.

That's because "the use of and division of the water on the Colorado River is one of the most important issues in the west, if not the most important," he said.

"And on top of that, I'm still a farmer at heart," Olson continued. "I still have my farm in Iowa. I love working with farmers."

Olson said his clients are important because Yuma farmers ship 90% of winter vegetables to the rest of the country. And the legal problems in the negotiations "are very complex and interrelated with governmental policy."

There is competition between the seven Upper Basin and three Lower Basin states, between the individual states, between Phoenix and Tucson and between all those users and Indian tribes.

He said the Department of the Interior is pressuring the various parties to compromise. "They're determined to get it done by 2026, and maybe even sooner," he said. A Munger Tolles team is deeply involved in the negotiation, principally Benjamin Horwich.

"I was there at the outset and continue to play a role in it," Olson added.

On the litigation side of his practice, Olson is part of the team representing Activision Blizzard in hard-fought litigation with the state Department of Civil Rights. He suspects the case will go to trial. "It's been challenging, and we've tried to work it out without success, and so we're saddling up." California Department of Civil Rights v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., 21STCV26571 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 20, 2021).

In 2020, Olson represented McDonald's in litigation to claw back the $105 million severance package it paid to former CEO Stephan Easterbrook. Now, all the shareholder derivative suits the actions spawned have been dismissed. The firm's Jonathan Kravis argued the matter. "I did all the reports to the board," Olson said. In re McDonald's Corp. Stockholder Derivative Litigation, 2021-0324 (Del. Chancery Ct., filed April 20, 2021).

He continues to advise Berkshire Hathaway on major corporate transactions. One of those was the purchase of a controlling interest in Pilot Corporation and its Pilot Flying J truck stops. Early this year, Berkshire took over management of the company.

Last year, he and his team worked with Berkshire Hathaway on its $11.6 billion acquisition of insurer Alleghany Corp. He said it was an unusual transaction because his client insisted the seller pay the fees charged by its investment bankers rather than passing them on to the buyer. "We think that's a more sensible way to allocate the fees."

And Olson still returns regularly to his farm, where he grows soybeans, corn and hay for his cattle. "I go back maybe three times a year and walk the land and get myself centered again," he said. "My tenant makes me think I'm making the decisions. In fact, he does."

-- Don DeBenedictis