News Release

Michael Barr, Leading Expert on Financial Institutions and Regulation, Joins Brookings as Nonresident Senior Fellow

March 15, 2011

Michael S. Barr, professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, has joined Brookings as a nonresident senior fellow, Brookings President Strobe Talbott announced today.

Barr served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions from 2009-2010, where he was a key architect of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and played a central role in the Obama administration’s housing finance policies. Barr was previously a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, affiliated with the Metropolitan Policy Program.

“We are delighted to have Michael rejoin Brookings,” said Karen Dynan, vice president and co-director of Economic Studies. “His expertise on financial institutions and regulatory reform, together with his experience as a policymaker during the financial crisis, will bring a lot to the Economic Studies program. We look forward to collaborating with him.”

At Michigan, Barr teaches financial institutions and international financial regulation, among other courses. He conducts large-scale empirical research on financial services and writes about a wide range of issues in financial regulation. Recent books include Insufficient Funds and Building Inclusive Financial Systems (Brookings, 2007).

Barr previously served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s special assistant, as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, as special advisor to President William J. Clinton, as special advisor and counselor on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, and as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and to Judge Pierre N. Leval of the Southern District of New York.

Barr received his J.D. from Yale Law School, an M. Phil. in International Relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, and his B.A., summa cum laude, with Honors in History, from Yale University.

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