McAllister Olivarius is an international law firm dual-headquartered in London and New York. It specializes in civil litigation and plaintiff work, particularly in education and employment law. Founded in 1996, McAllister Olivarius is one of the only feminist-run and managed law firms in the world. As of 2022, women represented 75% of the firm’s full time legal staff. The firm is currently led by Dr.

Ann Olivarius Ann Olivarius (born 19 February 1955) is an American-British lawyer who specializes in cases of civil litigation, sexual discrimination, and sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Early life and education Ann Olivarius grew up in New Jersey, th ...

, Chair of the Executive Committee and Dr.

Jef McAllister J.F.O. 'Jef' McAllister (born February 13, 1956) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. Formerly the London Bureau Chief of TIME Magazine, he is currently the Managing Partner of McAllister Olivarius, an international law firm headquarte ...

, Managing Partner. The firm is best known for representing plaintiffs in discrimination lawsuits against large institutions, including

Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is a hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Health System is structured around eight hospit ...

, the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

,the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, and

Celebrity Cruises Celebrity Cruises is a cruise line headquartered in Miami, Florida and a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group. Celebrity Cruises was founded in 1988 by the Greece-based Chandris Group, and merged with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 19 ...

, as well as for prominent individuals such as

Chrissy Chambers Bria Michelle Kam (born November 3, 1986) and Chrissy Emily Chambers (born October 5, 1990), better known by their stage name BriaAndChrissy, are a singing and acting duo best known for their YouTube channels "BriaAndChrissy" and "Lesbian Love", ...

. McAllister Olivarius lawyers, working through their former separate brand AO Advocates, are also known for representing victims of sex abuse and historic child sex abuse. They have successfully pursued claims against established religious bodies including the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

, certain sects of Buddhists and Hindus, and ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Judaism, and against a number of care homes and schools.

Notable Cases

University of Rochester

In March 2020, McAllister Olivarius settled a $9.4 million on behalf of nine former professors and students for alleged retaliation by the university after they filed sexual misconduct claims against Professor T. Florian Jaeger. This case was described as “high-profile” lawsuit “closely watched by other institutions of higher educations” by ''Science''. In December 2017, Celeste Kidd and Jessica Cantlon, plaintiffs in the case, were named as “ Persons of the Year” by

TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

as part of its cover story on the

MeToo movement #MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in ...

UCLA

In 2016, the firm settled a case brought against UCLA by two female graduate students after the university had allowed history professor Gabriel Piterberg, who they had accused of sexual harassment, to return to campus. McAllister Olivarius showed that the university had failed to follow proper procedures in handling the complaint and received a settlement for the plaintiffs.

Cases against religious institutions

AO Advocates, a sister firm which is now fully part of McAllister Olivarius, brought the UK’s first successful civil case against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, winning compensation for a woman who claimed the religion’s elders failed to protect her from sex abuse carried out by a pedophile. The firm has also represented a former Buddhist nun in her sexual assault claims against the 17th Karmapa

Ogyen Trinley Dorje Ogyen Trinley Dorje (, ; born 26 June 1985), also written as Urgyen Trinley Dorje () is a claimant to the title of 17th Karmapa. The Karmapa is head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Ogyen Trinley Dor ...

, a revered leader of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

Revenge Porn

In the first civil case of its kind to be brought in England and Wales, McAllister Olivarius won “landmark” damages for YouTube star

after her former partner uploaded revenge pornography videos of her to the internet. The firm has since built a revenge porn and intimate image abuse practice, and its attorneys are often quoted in the press on cyber-abuse and speak at events.

Manders v Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

In 2019, McAllister Olivarius won a victory for Reena and Sandeep Mander, a British-born couple of Sikh heritage who had been deemed “unsuitable” potential adopters by a UK adoption service due to their “Indian background.” The case resulted in the Manders being awarded £120,000 in damages and led to a review of how other local councils handle adoptions.

Warwick “Rape Chat” case

After it emerged that male students at the University of Warwick had used a Facebook chat group to exchange rape threats relating to fellow female students, and the University’s investigation was shown to be seriously inadequate, McAllister Olivarius sued for discrimination and negligence.

Impact on legislation

In 2020, the firm partnered with

The 1752 Group The 1752 Group is a UK-based research and lobby organisation working to end sexual misconduct in higher education. History The Sexual Harassment in Higher Education (SHHE) Conference, the first UK university conference on staff-to-student sex ...

, a British research and consultancy organization dedicated to ending staff sexual harassment and abuse in higher education. Together, they released a guide in 2020 on “Sector Guidance to Address Staff Sexual Misconduct In UK Higher Education.” The firm was cited in the 2021 UK Law Commission report on legal reforms to address intimate image abuse. The firm also The firm also assisted

Baroness Uddin Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, Member of the House of Lords, in passing the 2021 UK Domestic Abuse Act. Attorneys from the firm have appeared in the news advocating for legal reforms and better enforcement of

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

and its equivalent law in the UK, the Equality Act 2010. In an ongoing case, the firm brought suit against the University of Illinois on behalf of two Chinese students for “ignoring their claims of sexual abuse and subjecting them to trafficking.” The firm’s founder, Dr. Ann Olivarius, was a plaintiff in

Alexander v. Yale ''Alexander v. Yale'', 631 F.2d 178 (2d Cir. 1980), was the first use of Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 in charges of sexual harassment against an educational institution. It further established that sexual harassment ...

, the first case to hold that universities had a legal duty to combat sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

References

External links

* {{official, https://mcolaw.com/ Law firms of the United Kingdom Law firms of the United States