The football season’s first big matchup won’t be on a field but in a St. Louis federal courthouse on June 3. National Football League players recently drafted a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher team headed by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson to defend on appeal an injunction halting a lockout by NFL owners. The Olson team will face another powerhouse team — and will pit Olson against David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, his famous erstwhile foe in Bush v. Gore, and then his ally in the California Prop 8 case. The owners hired Boies in March for the antitrust battle. Boies is being joined by former Solicitor General Paul Clement of Bancroft. The Gibson Dunn lawyers entered the case through partner Andrew Tulumello, who was amicus counsel to the players’ association in a U.S. Supreme Court case last term, said Olson, adding, “As the case developed and it became clear it was going to go through the appellate process, they then decided to have an appellate specialist brought in.” Joining Olson and Tulumello are Travis Lenkner, Scott Martin and John Bash. — Marcia Coyle
AKIN MAY LEAD HEDGE FUND TITAN’S APPEAL
The jury’s guilty verdicts on May 11 against hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam on insider-trading charges immediately put the spotlight on sentencing and the appeal. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner John Dowd of Washington, co-leader of the firm’s white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice, led the defense in federal district court in New York.
