Oliver Dunford is a senior attorney in Pacific Legal Foundation’s Separation of Powers practice. He primarily litigates cases on agency adjudication, judicial deference, and emergency powers abuse, among other issues. Oliver joined PLF in March 2017.
He remains inspired by the classical liberal ideals upon which our Founders declared independence and secured the blessings of liberty. The Constitution’s promises, however, are not self-executing. As James Madison explained, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Oliver feels lucky that his work helps oblige the government to control itself—to the end that all individuals may pursue their rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Before joining PLF, Oliver clerked at the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio Court of Appeals and spent more than a decade in private practice working on complex commercial litigation. Originally from Cleveland, he is a graduate of the University of Dayton and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he was a managing editor for the Cleveland State Law Review.
Oliver spends all of his free time following the Cleveland Guardians.
Oliver is a member of the bar only in the states of California, Florida, and Ohio.
