Richard Olderman is a veteran appellate attorney and has litigated hundreds of civil and criminal cases in the federal and state courts of appeals as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Olderman began his career as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission where he was involved in a variety of antitrust and consumer protection issues, including questions of shared monopoly and alleged unfair and deceptive practices. He then worked at the Justice Department where he represented the United States on issues ranging from the constitutionality of various acts of Congress to regulatory challenges to government programs, and represented all the Executive Branch agencies and departments before the federal courts of appeals.
During his tenure at the Justice Department, he was one of the government's appellate experts in admiralty cases. He handled several cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, including the landmark case, U.S. v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U.S. 397, in which the rule of "divided damages" used for collisions between vessels at sea was abrogated by the Supreme Court and replaced by a comparative negligence rule.
Mr. Olderman also worked at the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations where he prosecuted individuals who illegally entered the country after World War II.
Mr. Olderman received his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 1967, received his M.A., in English and Comparative Literature, from the Columbia University Graduate Faculties in 1968, and received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1971, where he was a teaching fellow in antitrust law. He is admitted to practice in all federal courts of appeals as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.