Women & Politics: Women Lead

Dr. Ann Olivarius

Dr. Ann Olivarius is the Chair and Senior Partner of McAllister Olivarius, and Managing Partner of its sister firm, AO Advocates.

Ann has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer, financier, philanthropist, writer, and advisor to public figures. With a background in both civil rights law and corporate law, she specializes in cases of discrimination, sexual harassment and assault, and online abuse. She has successfully represented clients against major institutions, ensured that institutions change their practices, and lobbied Parliament to introduce new laws protecting vulnerable people from abuse.

Ann’s work with McAllister Olivarius has catered to a wide range of cases and needs. She has helped clients pursue civil claims against their individual abusers and represented large groups in joint-action lawsuits against multinational corporations, universities, and medical bodies. With AO Advocates, she has represented victims of institutional abuse and brought suit against children’s homes, care homes, prominent schools, and major international religious bodies that allowed the abuse to persist. Her work also includes international corporate transactions, and divorces involving complex financial provisions.

Fighting for legal and institutional reform, to secure justice by protecting others in the future, is central to Ann’s philosophy. Her work in increasing public and governmental awareness of image-based sexual abuse led to its becoming a criminal offense in the UK, and she recently oversaw the establishment of consentlawyers.com, a new form of online service that helps victims of this abuse find affordable, anonymous help. Both her firms have worked closely with the 1752 Group to provide UK universities with better guidance on how to handle sexual harassment and assault investigations. She is a frequent contributor to both British and American media and has spoken publicly on topics ranging from modern student life to the role of women in science. Ann has been honored by the ACLU, YaleWomen, and the scientific journal Nature.

Before establishing McAllister Olivarius in 1999, Ann worked in the financial sector. She advised Bill Gates on attracting investment after Microsoft’s initial public offering in 1986, designed a European corporate structure for Perot Systems that helped make it an attractive candidate for sale to Dell for almost $4 billion, and was CEO of a medical foundation with assets she grew over four years from $7 million to over $100 million. As a negotiator for Mexico in the drafting of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), she introduced the concept of a feminist foreign policy at the trade negotiations, later adopted by countries across the world.