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Erik Olson focuses on the litigation of securities and intellectual property disputes, with particular emphasis on clients in the biotechnology, medical device, healthcare, and high technology industries.

Mr. Olson has helped:

• the University of California obtain a settlement valued at over $200 million in a patent infringement suit against Monsanto Company;
• the University of California obtain a $200 million settlement in a patent infringement suit against Genentech Corporation;
• Clorox obtain a defense verdict after a four-week jury trial; and
• the University of Rochester prosecute its ground-breaking claims against Pfizer for the sale of Celebrex and Bextra.

In securities related matters, Mr. Olson has:

• obtained the voluntary dismissal of pending class action and state derivative claims against Titan Pharmaceuticals;
• persuaded the SEC to close investigations without assessing any penalty against a software corporation, a home furnishings retailer, and a medical device manufacturer that each restated millions of revenue and expenses;
• assisted the Special Litigation Committee of the Board of Directors of Cisco Systems to investigate state derivative claims of fraud, insider trading and breach of fiduciary duty;
• obtained dismissals of numerous federal class action lawsuits and successfully defended those dismissals before the Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit;
• assisted audit committees to investigate alleged violations of federal securities laws and alleged accounting misconduct.

Mr. Olson has served as counsel in numerous state and federal cases, private arbitrations, and proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has handled appeals in the California Court of Appeals and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Ninth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits.

In 2006, Mr. Olson was elected Chair of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California. He has also served as the Chair of the Litigation Section’s Rules & Legislation Committee, which reviews and comments on legislative and rule changes to laws that affect civil litigation in California. From 2002 to 2004, he served on Morrison & Foerster’s internal SEC task force. In 2007, he was identified as a Northern California “Super Lawyer.” Mr. Olson is listed in the Best Lawyers in America for Corporate Governance and Compliance Law.

Mr. Olson joined Morrison & Foerster in 1997. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1994 in the top ten percent of his class. He is a 1990 graduate of Westmont College. After law school, Mr. Olson served as a law clerk to Judge Leonard I. Garth of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Newark, New Jersey.