Early Life, Education and Law Career
Born to parents Van and Myrna Olsen in Fargo, North Dakota, Olsen's family moved to Washington D.C. when he was three years old, growing up with his two sisters; Jennifer and Susan. His father, who died in 2008, worked as the chief of staff for North Dakota Senator Mark Andrews in the late 1960s. Olsen's grandfather immigrated from Norway and moved to North Dakota at the age of sixteen.
After graduating from high school in 1980, he attended the University of Virginia, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1984. He worked as a copy aide for the Washington Post before attending Harvard Law School where receiving his Juris Doctor in 1988 and was an executive editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. While away from Harvard, Olsen worked as a Summer Associate at the Schwalb Donnenfeld, Bray & Silbert law firm in Washinton D.C in 1986. He also briefly worked at McKenna, Conner & Cuneo before working as Summer Associate for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in Juneau, Alaska in 1987. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1988 and has been a member of the District of Columbia Bar since 1990.
Olsen clerked from 1988 to 1990 for Norma Holloway Johnson, who was a District Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He entered private practice as an Associate for Arnold & Porter in 1991.
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