Michael S. Barr is the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy and the Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He is also the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and faculty director of the University of Michigan's Center on Finance, Law, and Policy. Previously he served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he helped to develop and pass the Dodd–Frank Act.
Education
Barr attended Yale College and graduated summa cum laude with honors in history in 1987. At Yale, he won the New Prize for public service and the Gries Prize for his senior history thesis: "The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa." Barr went on to earn his M.Phil. in international relations in 1989 as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford University. His thesis was on U.S.-Panamanian relations. Barr returned to Yale Law School to earn a J.D. in 1992. He was co-recipient of the AILA Human Rights Award and recipient of the Charles G. Albom Prize for appellate advocacy during his time at Yale Law School.
Career
Upon graduating from Yale in 1992, Barr worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Pierre N. Leval in the U.S. District Court for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Barr moved to the U.S. Supreme Court to clerk for Associate Justice David Souter in 1993. In 1994, Barr joined the policy planning staff of the United States Department of State as a special advisor and counselor. From 1995-1997, he served as special assistant to United States Department of the TreasuryRobert Rubin, and then as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for community development policy from 1997-2001. Barr concurrently served as special advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1999-2001. In 2001, Barr joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty as an assistant professor of law. He became professor of law in 2006 and co-founded the International Transactions Clinic at the University of Michigan in 2008. In 2014, Barr was named the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law. From 2009-2010, while on leave from the University of Michigan Law School, Barr returned to the U.S. Department of Treasury as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions. In this position, Barr was a key architect of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. He played a central role in developing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and policies to expand access to capital for small businesses. Barr also helped develop and enact the Credit CARD Act of 2009. In 2010, Barr was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award for Distinguished Leadership, the Treasury’s highest honor. Upon returning to the University of Michigan, Barr established and directed the Center on Finance, Law, and Policy, a university-wide interdisciplinary research center on financial policy and regulation, financial products and services, and management of financial institutions. In 2015, Barr helped create the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, which provides loan capital to minority entrepreneurs in Detroit. He also co-founded the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project at the University of Michigan in 2016. The DNEP is an interdisciplinary clinic that connects students and faculty from the Law School, the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and the University of Michigan College of Engineering to help entrepreneurs develop their small businesses. Barr has served as an advisor to multiple public policy organizations and initiatives, including the Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. On August 1, 2017, Barr began a five-year appointment as the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He is a non-resident scholar at the Brookings Institution and serves as an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
