William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950 in New York City) is an American attorney who served as the 77th Attorney General of the United States.

Barr, the son of two Columbia University faculty members, grew up on the Upper West side of Manhattan, attended Catholic parochial school and Horace Mann High School, and received his bachelor's degree in government and a master's degree in government and Chinese studies, in 1971 and 1973 respectively, from Columbia University. He received his J.D. with highest honors in 1977 from The George Washington University Law School. From 1973 to 1977, he was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Barr was a law clerk to Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1977 through 1978. He served on the domestic policy staff at the Reagan White House from 1982 to 1983. He was also in private practice for nine years with the Washington law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge.

In 1989, at the outset of his administration, President George H.W. Bush appointed Barr to the U.S. Department of Justice as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, an office which functions as the legal advisor to the President and executive branch agencies. Barr was known as a strong defender of Presidential power and wrote advisory opinions justifying the U.S. invasion of Panama and arrest of Manuel Noriega, and a controversial opinion that the F.B.I. could enter onto foreign soil without the consent of the host government to apprehend fugitives wanted for terrorism or drug-trafficking.

In May 1990, Barr was appointed Deputy Attorney General, the official responsible for day-to-day management of the Department. According to media reports, Barr generally got high marks for his professional running of the Department.

In August 1991, when then-Attorney General Richard Thornburgh resigned to run for the Senate, Barr was named Acting Attorney General. Three days after Barr moved into that position, 121 Cuban inmates, awaiting deportation to Cuba as extremely violent criminals, seized 9 hostages at the Talladega federal prison. Barr directed the F.B.I.'s Hostage Rescue Team to carry out an assult on the prison, which resulted in rescuing all hostages without loss of life. It was reported that President Bush was impressed with Barr's handling of the hostage crisis, and weeks later, President Bush nominated him as Attorney General.

The media described Barr as staunchly conservative. The New York Times described the "central theme" of his tenure to be: "his contention that violent crime can be reduced only by expanding Federal and state prisons to jail habitual violent offenders." At the same time, reporters consistently describe Barr as affable with a dry, self-deprecating wit.

After leaving the Department of Justice, Barr spent over 14 years in senior corporate positions. At the end of 2008 he retired from Verizon Communications, having served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of GTE Corporation from 1994 until that company merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon. During his corporate tenure, Barr led a successful litigation campaign by the local phone industry to achieve deregulation by scuttling a series of FCC rules, personally arguring several key cases in the federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Barr currently serves on several corporate boards.

In his home state of Virginia, Barr was appointed in 1994 by then-Governor George Allen to co-chair a commission to reform the criminal justice system and abolish parole in the state. He also served on the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg from 1997 to 2005.

Barr is an avid bagpiper, an avocation he began at the age of 8, and has played competitively in Scotland with a leading American pipe band.

Barr is a Roman Catholic. He married Christine Moynihan in June 1973, and they have three grown daughters.

References