Harvard Law School Professor David Barron ’94 has been appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Barron will be the chief deputy to Dawn Johnsen, who will head the Office, and until her confirmation he will be the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the office.
Barron has been advising the incoming administration’s transition team. Prior to joining the HLS faculty in 1999, he served as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel.
An expert in administrative law and the separation of powers, Barron recently co-wrote an important law review article evaluating executive authority in war. He also testified before Congress on war powers.
In addition to his extensive scholarship in these areas, Barron has also devoted attention to local government law. He is the co-author of a casebook, “Local Government Law” (4th edition, 2006) and numerous scholarly articles. Last year, he co-wrote a book with Professor Gerald Frug, entitled “City Bound: How States Stifle Innovation.”
After obtaining his J.D., Barron clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.