American Foundation for Equal Rights

Legal Team

Theodore B. Olson

Theodore B. Olson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher‘s Washington, D.C. office, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the Appellate and Constitutional Law Group and the firm’s Crisis Management Team.

Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984 he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.

Selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Mr. Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 60 cases in the Supreme Court, including the two Bush v. Gore cases arising out of the 2000 presidential election, and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, prevailing in over 75% of those arguments. Mr. Olson’s practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises occurring at the federal/state, criminal/civil and domestic/international levels. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States, and in international tribunals.

Mr. Olson’s Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the First Amendment; the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property and just compensation; the Commerce Clause; taxation; criminal law; copyright; antitrust; securities; campaign finance; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; and other federal constitutional and statutory questions.

As Solicitor General, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Olson was the Government’s principal advocate in the United States Supreme Court, responsible for supervising and coordinating all appellate litigation of the United States, and a legal adviser to the President and the Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan Administration, Mr. Olson was the Executive Branch’s principal legal adviser, rendering legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the Executive Branch departments on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions, and assisting in formulating and articulating the Executive Branch’s position on constitutional issues.

Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice been awarded the United States Department of Justice’s Edmund J. Randolph Award, its highest award for public service and leadership, and also received the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court.

Mr. Olson is an appointee of President Obama to the ten-member Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a member of the Board of Trustees on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007. He served on the President’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008. He was Co-Chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy from 2008-2009.

Mr. Olson is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. The National Law Journal has repeatedly listed him as one of America’s Most Influential Lawyers. The American Lawyer and Legal Times have characterized Mr. Olson as one of America’s leading advocates. In 2011,Washingtonian magazine listed him as number one on its compilation of the finest lawyers in the nation’s capital. The late New York Times columnist William Safire described Mr. Olson as this generation’s “most persuasive advocate” before the Supreme Court and “the most effective Solicitor General” in decades.

Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the California Law Review and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. He has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral communication in the courtroom, civil justice reform, punitive damages, and constitutional and administrative law.

David Boies

David Boies is Chairman of  Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP, a law firm with offices in New York, Washington D.C., California, Florida, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

Mr. Boies has been selected as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine (2010). He has been named Global International Litigator of the Year byWho’s Who Legal an unprecedented seven times, including 2013.

Mr. Boies is the recipient of Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Redlands (2000), New York Law School (2007), University of New Hampshire School of Law (2013), and New York University (2013) and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Chicago Theological Seminary (2011). His awards include the Award of Merit from the Yale Law School, the ABA Medal from the American Bar Association, the Vanderbilt Medal from New York University Law School, the Pinnacle Award from the International Dyslexia Association, the William Brennan Award from the University of Virginia, the Role Model Award from Equality Forum, the Lead by Example Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Torch of Learning Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University, the Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award from the Union for Reform Judaism, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Center for Justice.

Mr. Boies has been named the Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer; the Lawyer of the Year by The National Law Journal; runner-up Person of the Year by Time Magazine; the Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the New York Bar Association; Best Lawyers in America from 1987-2013; Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers; and a Star Individual by Chambers USA. He was named one of the Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years by The American Lawyer in 2013.

Mr. Boies served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978 and Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979.

In 1991-1993, Mr. Boies was counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, recovering $1.2 billion from companies who sold junk bonds to failed savings and loan associations.

In 1998-2000, he served as Special Trial Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in its antitrust suit against Microsoft. Mr. Boies also served as the lead counsel for former Vice-President Al Gore in connection with litigation relating to the 2000 election Florida vote count. As co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown, he won judgments establishing the constitutional right to marry for gay and lesbian citizens in California.

Representative clients include Altria, American Express, Apple, Barclays, CBS,  DuPont, Heartheaded Productions, HSBC, NASCAR, New York Yankees, Oracle, Sony, Starr International, Theranos, and The Weinstein Company.

Mr. Boies was born in Sycamore,Illinois on March 11, 1941. He attended the University of Redlands (1960-62), and received a B.S. from Northwestern University (1964), an LL.B., magna cum laude from Yale University (1966), and an LL.M. from New York University (1967).

Mr. Boies is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers; and a Trustee of the National Constitution Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York University Law School Foundation and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Mr. Boies is the author of numerous publications includingCourting Justice, published by Miramax in 2004 and Public Control of Business (with Paul Verkuil), published by Little Brown in 1977. He has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo Law School.

Thomas B. Shuttleworth

Tom Shuttleworth is the senior partner at Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Swain, Haddad & Morecock, P.C.. The son of working class parents, he worked his way through college and law school in a variety of jobs including parking cars, waiting tables, working in construction, working in hospitals, as a police officer, and the law library.

Mr. Shuttleworth is a trial lawyer who tries both personal injury and criminal cases. He is admitted to the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference and has in the past served in leadership roles in the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. He graduated in 1973 from Washington & Lee University Law School where he was a member of the Washington & Lee Law Review. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America under both civil and criminal and is AV rated in The Martindale-Hubbell. He is one of the lawyers in Virginia Beach listed in the Legal Elite who has been listed under both civil and criminal law. He was chosen as the 2009 Personal Injury Lawyer of the year by Best Lawyers in America for the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. In 2012 he was chosen as the Medical Malpractice Plaintiff’s Lawyer of the year by Best Lawyers in America for the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area and in 2013 as the Lawyer of the year in white collar crimes. He taught law for three years at William & Mary Law School.

He has appeared 20 times in either the Supreme Court of Virginia or the Fourth Circuit to argue cases on appeal. He recently won a case in the U.S. Supreme Court on a constitutional question on the right of confrontation.

Matthew D. McGill

Matthew D. McGill is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and its Appellate and Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property practice groups.

Mr. McGill recently was named a national Rising Star by Law360, which identified him as one of 10 appellate lawyers under 40 to watch.   Since joining the firm in 2004, he has participated in sixteen cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, drafting winning briefs in eleven of those cases.  Those eleven Supreme Court victories, which span a wide range of substantive areas of law, include several of the biggest come-from-behind legal victories for businesses of the last decade, including Hollingsworth v. Perry, AFER’s federal constitutional challenge against California’s Proposition 8, which took away the freedom to marry from gay and lesbian couples in the state.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. McGill served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice.  He clerked for the Hon. Joseph M. McLaughlin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. John G. Roberts, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Mr. McGill earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 1996.  In 2000, he graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.  Mr. McGill is licensed to practice in New York and the District of Columbia and he has been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh, District of Columbia, and Federal Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York.

Chantale Fiebig

Chantale Fiebig is an associate in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP’s Litigation Department. She is a member of the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Antitrust and Competition Practice Groups.

Ms. Fiebig has significant experience in civil and criminal matters at the district and appellate court levels. She has represented financial services companies, private equity firms, hedge funds and pharmaceutical manufacturers in matters arising under the federal antitrust and securities laws and in complex commercial litigation. Her practice has involved conducting internal investigations; managing pre-trial discovery and motion practice; representing clients in domestic and international arbitrations; litigating post-judgment proceedings under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; and state and federal appellate briefing and oral argument.

Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Fiebig served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, where she successfully represented the government in over 20 appeals, and argued seven cases in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was also involved in prosecuting general and public corruption crimes in the district court. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she practiced in the New York office of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Ms. Fiebig served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Rosemary Barkett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She received her law degree from Stanford Law School, where she was an Articles Editor for the Stanford Law Review. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar.

Ms. Fiebig is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Robert E. Ruloff

Bob Ruloff is the Managing Partner of Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Swain, Haddad and Morecock, a law firm whose office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The firm is listed as one of the best law firms in Virginia, First Tier Firm Rankings, by U. S. News & World Report.

Mr. Ruloff is a real estate lawyer, but occasionally takes challenging and unique cases involving Human and Constitutional rights. He appeared before the Supreme Court of Virginia in a case involving Sovereign Immunity, advocating that citizen’s rights were superior to the rights of the Sovereign, and that Sovereign Immunity should be abolished in Virginia.

Mr. Ruloff is a graduate of Washington & Lee University School of Law, and is licensed to practice in Virginia and the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers Consumer Guide, and is AV Preeminent rated in the Martindale –Hubbell. Mr. Ruloff is also listed in the Legal Elite by Virginia Business for Real Estate and Land use, and was listed as a Super Lawyer by the Virginia Super Lawyers Magazine.

Mr. Ruloff was an Adjunct professor at Regent University School of Law, teaching real estate law. In 1992, he helped rewrite the Mechanics Lien Laws in the State of Virginia, which was instrumental in resolving a crisis in the real estate industry, as Title Insurance Companies temporarily stopped giving affirmative coverage to Lenders for Mechanics lien Coverage, and the Construction Industry came to sudden stop. The Home Builders Association of Virginia gave special recognition to Mr. Ruloff for his role in creating a new approach to Virginia’s M&M’s laws that had not changed for more than 200 Years.

Mr. Ruloff has also represented Sports figures such as Guillermo Vilas, the Number One ranked tennis player in the world in 1977, and Ion Tiriac, Tennis Coach, manager (Ile Nastase, Guillermo villas, Boris Becker) and entrepreneur who is considered one of Romanania’s richest people. Mr. Ruloff presently represents retired professional football player, Dre Bly, who was on the St. Louis Rams Super Bowl Team in 2000.

Representative Clients: Operation Smile, a nonprofit medical service that provides cleft lip and palate repair to children worldwide. James Arnhold, a co-founder of EQU-KIDS’, a non-profit therapeutic riding program for special needs children, and EQU-VETS, which offers physical and mental healing for armed service members wounded in the line of duty.

Mr. Ruloff was born Montgomery, W. VA., Nov. 19, 1945, and received his BA degree from West Virginia Institute of Technology in 1968. He then served in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968-1970, and received two Meritorious Promotions and a Meritorious Mast.

Charles B. Lustig

Charles Lustig joined Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Swain, Haddad & Morecock, P.C. in October, 2005 following more than four years as a public defender in the Portsmouth, Virginia Public Defender’s Office where he successfully tried several criminal jury trials involving serious felony charges.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Lustig practiced white collar criminal defense law in Washington D.C. with Fulbright & Jaworski and King & Spaulding.

Mr. Lustig focuses his practice on personal injury, criminal defense, civil litigation and appellate advocacy.  Mr. Lustig has extensive brief writing and oral argument experience in state and federal appellate courts in Virginia and has written briefs and/or argued numerous cases in which the trial court’s judgment was overturned, or in which a favorable ruling was affirmed.

Erik Porcaro

Erik joined Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Swain, Haddad and Morecock in February of 2013 as a Litigation Associate.  His vast criminal and civil litigation experience in and out of the courtroom have proven to be a valuable asset to his clients.  Erik now focuses his practice on personal injury, criminal defense, medical negligence and civil litigation.

After graduating from Fordham University School of Law in New York City, Erik joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office where he worked as an Assistant District Attorney for over six years.  As an Assistant DA, he handled complex criminal matters including sex crimes, identity theft, felony D.U.I., narcotics distribution, robbery and homicide.  As a prosecutor, Erik tried over twenty five jury trials to verdict, presented hundreds of cases to the Grand Jury and headed multiple long term investigations.  Erik was also a member of the Sex Crimes Unit where he represented victims of sexually related crimes including rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching.

After serving as an Assistant District Attorney, Erik joined the law firm of Hoey, King and Epstein where he worked as House Counsel to Chubb Insurance.  There, he handled complex personal injury, labor law and insurance subrogation matters.  He successfully argued multiple matters in the Appellate Division for the First and Second Departments.