Griffin B. Bell papers, circa 1952-2009
Bell, Griffin B., 1918-2009.Collection is open for research.This collection contains address books, U.S. Attorney General's files, awards, audiovisual material, political and personal correspondence, clippings, commission and committee records, crank letters, U. S. Department of Justice files, event materials, financial records, legislation files, legal opinions, organizational records, photographs, political cartoons, a scrapbook, speeches and lectures, Supreme Court briefs, and testimonies of Griffin B. Bell. The papers date from 1952 to 2009. In addition to Bell's files covering his years in private legal practice in Georgia, his U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit years, and his service as 72nd Attorney General of the United States, the collection also includes Bell's files on his book, Taking Care of the Law, published in 1982 by Mercer University Press. Materials also cover many of the organizations and committees he participated in over the years including, American Bar Association, Center for Study of Presidency, American College of Trial Lawyers, Atlanta Baptist School Committee, Center for Law and National Security, Council on Crime in America, Ethics Resource Center, Georgia Bar Association, Law and National Security Board of Advisors, National Advisory Committee, National Legal Center for Public Interest, National Science Center, National Tax Limitation Committee, Neighborhood Justice Center, President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on South Africa, and Task Force on Violent Crime.Griffin Boyette Bell was born in Americus, Georgia, on 31 October 1918. He served in the United States Army, attaining the rank of Major, from 1941 to 1946 and graduated cum laude from Mercer University Law School with an LL.B. degree in 1948. Bell practiced law in Georgia from 1948 until 1961 when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Judge Bell served on the Fifth Circuit for fifteen years until President Jimmy E. Carter's nomination to become the 72nd Attorney General of the United States. Bell received the attorney general oath of office from Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in January 1977 and served until August 1979. In his private practice, Bell joined the law firm King and Spaulding in Atlanta, Georgia in 1953. He became managing partner in 1958, and served as senior partner until January 2004 when he became senior counsel of the firm. He conducted investigations such as internal reviews for E.F. Hutton's Board of Directors regarding fraud charges and an independent review of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska for the board of directors of the Exxon Company and managed the estate of Howard Hughes. Bell served on Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's ad hoc Advisory Committee on new rules governing military tribunals in 2002, served on the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee for the Department of Defense, and chaired a study group regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office of Professional Responsibility in 2003. In addition, he was selected by the Defense Department as a member of the Review Panel for Military Commissions and served as Chief Judge until resigning in November 2007. Griffin Bell died on 5 January 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 90.Collection level control.Bell, Griffin B., 1918-2009.Attorneys general United States.United States Politics and government 1977-1981.View this collection description in WorldCat.org: