For more than six decades, Ron L. Olson, ’66, and Jane T. Olson have shared a willingness to say “yes” to opportunity. That instinct carried them from Iowa to Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan Law School expanded their worldview—first to Oxford, then to Washington, DC, and ultimately to California.
No matter where they traveled, a deep investment in people, ideas, and institutions has defined their lives. Ron and Jane’s commitment to strengthening democracy is a natural extension of this, and they recently made a $5,000,000 gift to the Law School to establish the Ron and Jane Olson Fund for Democracy, Human Rights, and Civic Dialogue.
A shared journey takes shape
Having grown up in small Iowa towns, Ron and Jane say that living in Ann Arbor and socializing around the Michigan Law campus changed them.
“I’d never been surrounded by so many smart people, whether they were professors or students, from all over the country and several from out of the country,” Ron says. “Plus, the football weekends were always fun.”
Jane adds, “We were also, in a way, introduced to culture while there. There’s so much going on: concerts, lectures, and free events, so we took advantage of them.”
In March 1966, just before Ron’s Law School graduation, Jane gave birth to their first daughter, Kristin. Ron was then awarded a Ford Fellowship, and the family of three moved to Oxford, England, for one year. In 1967, Ron began working in Washington, DC, for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and then clerked for Chief Judge David L. Bazelon on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
They had planned to stay in Washington, DC, until Ron received a phone call from his Law School friend Doug Kranwinkle, ’65. Doug had joined the new law firm of Munger, Tolles, Hills & Rickershauser in Los Angeles. After urging from Doug, Ron interviewed at the firm and met all seven of the lawyers, including Charles T. “Charlie” Munger, HLLD, ’10, and Rod and Carla Hills.
“Despite a very sparse clientele, the people I met were so interesting that I couldn’t resist coming back to Jane, saying we should try it. She believed in me enough to go along, and we’ve been here since 1968.”
Advocacy in action
As a named partner of what is today known as Munger, Tolles & Olson, Ron built his practice around a combination of litigation and corporate counseling. He helped to start the American Bar Association’s litigation section and became its youngest chair. He also pioneered the use of alternative dispute resolution, leading to the establishment of the ABA section of dispute resolution, which he also chaired. His experiences led to teaching trial advocacy and dispute resolution at professional gatherings around the world.
Around the same time, Jane joined All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, where she met Rev. George Regas, a social activist with close connections to ecumenical religious leaders. She was involved in a program focused on the nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviet Union, which propelled her into a decades-long dedication to humanitarian work.
“I was so smitten with that experience that I wanted to continue the work,” she says. “I do a lot of speaking to young people at high schools, colleges, and universities, and I always tell students, ‘Pay attention to what comes your way. While you’re busy planning what you want to do, you may get an invitation that could change your life.’”
Jane also has chaired and co-chaired the boards of several international and national humanitarian organizations and taken mission trips to many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, which are chronicled in her memoir, World Citizen: Journeys of a Humanitarian (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2022).
Outside his practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson, Ron has served as a director of Berkshire Hathaway, Edison International, City National Bank, The Washington Post Company, Provivi, and Andersen Group Inc. He also has served as a director and often chair of numerous nonprofits.
Ron L. Olson, ’66We believe in our communities, whether they be the ones we live in now or the ones we grew up in; we have always given to everything that has influenced our lives.
A tradition of civic investment
Ron and Jane say they have been blessed by their experiences in life and have a desire to give back to “what helped create those experiences.”
This most recent gift to the Law School brings their lifetime giving to the institution to $6.7 million, with previous gifts supporting the expansion and renovation of the Law School’s campus, the Law School Fund, and the Center for International and Comparative Law. They also give to Oxford University; each of their undergraduate alma maters; their churches; small-town newspapers in Iowa; and Los Angeles’s largest public radio station, where Ron served as its founding chair.
“We believe in our communities, whether they be the ones we live in now or the ones we grew up in; we have always given to everything that has influenced our lives,” says Ron.
At the start of 2020, the couple began planning their latest gift to the Law School. When Neel Sukhatme, the David A. Breach Dean of Law, joined as the institution’s 19th dean, their gift was finalized. Funds will be used at the dean’s discretion to support research, teaching, and programming that deepens understanding of the law’s role in democracy and advancing human rights and civic dialogue.
“Neel is phenomenal; he’s got energy and an outside perspective, and part of that is based on his own work in advancing democracy,” says Ron. “I’m really excited about working with him because, right now, the fundamentals of democracy—starting with the rule of law—are at risk. We want to do what we can to help.”
Ron and Jane’s recent gift to Michigan Law echoes other philanthropic achievements the couple has pursued together, such as the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’s Ron Olson Justice Center and the Ron and Jane Olson Institute for Public Democracy at Drake University.
Ron and Jane take immense pride in their Ann Arbor and Michigan Law roots, which they share with their son, Steven Olson, ’95; their daughter, Amy Duerk, ’98; and their daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Olson, ’97. They also have 10 grandchildren. “We’re going to have a lot more lawyers in the family,” says Jane.
