"Perhaps America's leading authority on over-litigation". That's what Investor's Business Daily has called Walter Olson, whose writings have helped spark debate about the high cost of our national pastime of suing each other.  His most recent book, The Rule of Lawyers, was hailed in leading publications including Forbes ("truly gripping" and "brilliant"), The American Lawyer, and Barron's (a "marvelous combination of irony, insight and outrage"). The Excuse Factory, his 1997 book on litigation in the workplace, was met with accolades in the London Times ("riveting") and the A.B.A. Journal ("wittily scathing").  His widely discussed first book, The Litigation Explosion, was cited by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a major Supreme Court case.  On the web, he founded and continues to run Overlawyered.com, widely cited as the oldest blog on law as well as one of the most popular, as well as the Manhattan Institute's PointOfLaw.com.The Washington Post has dubbed Olson an "intellectual guru of tort reform".

A longtime senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, the think tank in New York City, Mr. Olson has been a columnist for Great Britain's Times Online as well as Reason. His writing appears regularly in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the New York Post.  He has appeared numerous times before Congress and advised many public officials.  His approximately 400 broadcast appearances include all the major networks, CNN, Fox News, PBS, NPR, and "Oprah".  He is at work on a book about the influence of the law schools.