Ann Olivarius has been fighting for people who have been harassed, abused, and discriminated against since before she was a lawyer. At 22, as a student at Yale, she became a plaintiff in Alexander v. Yale, the 1977 landmark case that established for the first time that universities who do not do anything to curb sexual harassment are committing illegal sex discrimination under federal law. Nearly fifty years later, she remains more committed than ever to the belief that when institutions seek to silence those they harm, it is a lawyer’s job to give them a voice – in court, in public, on the record.
A lawyer who has courageously advanced the cause of justice, and improved life opportunities, for hundreds of millions of women, blacks, and disadvantaged, worldwide.
Nelson Mandela
In 2011, Ann joined forces with leading US child abuse litigator Jeff Anderson to bring historic child sex abuse cases against powerful institutions and form new paths to justice for British victims. She has since helped hundreds of survivors of traumatic abuse to bring cases against the Catholic Church, major schools, care homes, the Church of England, the Methodist Church, Harvest Christian Fellowship, and others on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ann has also been a trailblazer in fighting sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. She forced the University of Rochester to pay out $9.4 million – one of the largest sexual harassment awards against a US research university – after sparking a national conversation about power dynamics in American academia. Ann’s work saw her named by Nature as one of the 10 people who had the biggest impact in science that year, while two of her clients became TIME magazine People of the Year for their role in the lawsuit.
She was among the first lawyers to identify online image abuse as a significant problem. Her early work in this field led McAllister Olivarius into the uncharted territory of online safety legislation. When Chrissy Chambers came to Ann after intimate images of her had been posted online without her consent, there was no civil precedent in England and Wales for what had been done to her. Ann brought the case anyway and won. The judgment that followed helped persuade Parliament to make non-consensual intimate image sharing a criminal offence. The law Ann helped to change has protected people ever since.
In 2022, Ann was named an Honorary King’s Counsel – one of the rarest distinctions in the English legal system – in recognition of her leading role in the fields of women’s rights, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse, and for having played what the Ministry of Justice described as “an instrumental part in lobbying Parliament to pass laws against the disclosure of non-consensual private images.”
She has been recognized by the ACLU, by Yale Women, and been named OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for her work. She holds law and business degrees from Yale and a DPhil in Economics from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is a frequent contributor to British and American media and continues to speak, write, and advocate publicly on the issues her clients face.
Ann runs McAllister Olivarius alongside her husband and law partner Jef McAllister, whom she met as an undergraduate at Yale. Together, Ann and Jef have spent nearly 50 years fighting to make the world a better place. Based on her own experience as a plaintiff and thirty years of legal and trial experience, Ann knows that justice doesn’t come without courage. Each time someone contacts McAllister Olivarius looking for justice, she hopes she can help.
More information on Ann’s life and work can be found at her website, www.annolivarius.com.
Photos of Ann
Case Experience
- While an undergraduate at Yale, designed the legal theory for the landmark case Alexander v Yale, one of the first cases to legally define sexual harassment and the duty of care owed by institutions to prevent it.
- Brought sexual harassment and assault cases on behalf of students, faculty, and staff at several universities in the UK and USA, including Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Warwick, Miami, and UCLA. Secured historic settlements, the removal of offending staff from posts, and institutional change, including an end to the use of non-disclosure agreements in investigation of sexual offences.
- Secured a $9.4 million settlement with the University of Rochester on behalf of nine clients, including world-renowned scholars, who encountered systematic sexual harassment from a prominent member of academic staff. The case resulted in the resignation of the University’s president, and two of the plaintiffs were listed among TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2017.
- Represented international YouTube star Chrissy Chambers, and obtained a significant settlement for her, after her ex-boyfriend raped her while incapacitated and circulated footage of the rape widely online. At the time, there was no specific law against this type of abuse in the UK. However, Ann was able to make a novel argument in the High Court, combining various parts of the Prevention of Harassment Act and other existing laws to support Chambers’ case.
- Successfully lobbied Parliament for a criminal law against image-based sexual abuse, enacted as Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
- Represented an American teenager whose British former boyfriend distributed her intimate pictures to her family, friends, and various websites, then made threats of murder. After the firm intervened, he was convicted of image-based abuse and harassment and sentenced to prison.
- Brought to trial – and won – the first successful child abuse case against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK, making new law that extended the vicarious liability of religious institutions for child abuse committed by their low-ranking officials, confirmed on appeal. Subsequently, Ann briefed the UK Government about the danger of the ‘two-witness rule’ in Jehovah’s Witness communities.
- Represented a woman who was made to witness the rape of her own children, who won only a small award from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). Lodged a successful appeal that increased her compensation tenfold, one of the largest awards ever given by CICA.
- Brought a case against one of the world’s wealthiest banks for racial and sexual discrimination against a staff member, including physical violence, resulting in potentially the highest settlement achieved to that point for physical demonstration of discrimination.
- Brought a major race and sex discrimination case against a Magic Circle law firm which resulted in an eight-figure settlement and a total overhaul of the firm’s training and promotion practices.
- Represented the Europe Editor of a world-famous news magazine, in both US and UK lawsuits, for age and sex discrimination.
- Represented an American working for a British company who was sexually assaulted by her boss during a business trip to headquarters in England. Secured a major settlement for the client, the resignation of the perpetrator, and new procedures for protection of employees at the company.
- In a case that received major media coverage, represented a British-born couple of Sikh Indian background whose local adoption agency would not allow them to apply because only white babies were anticipated. The case was supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission; the court agreed that the Council’s actions were discriminatory and awarded substantial damages, a ruling that has caused adoption agencies around the country to improve their treatment of non-white couples.
- Led the firm’s participation in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), as part of efforts to trigger Parliamentary reform in this area.
- Worked in partnership with the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association to represent many victims of historic child abuse in the London Borough of Lambeth, achieving some of the largest settlements paid under the borough’s Redress Scheme.
- Currently representing eight former employees of Mount Sinai Health System, New York, in a lawsuit for gender, race, and age discrimination that has attracted significant media coverage and prompted the introduction of a bill to create formal anti-discrimination procedures in New York hospitals.
