Former Deputy Attorney General George Terwilliger III '78 in The New York Times

Former Deputy Attorney General George Terwilliger III '78 was quoted in The New York Times on attorney generals facing political pressure. George Terwilliger, who was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's defense lawyer during the hearings over prosecutor firings, said political pressure in the job "has increases exponentially in the last 20 years" and has distracted from the attorney general's main mission of enforcing federal laws.

As the No. 2 official at the Justice Department in the first Bush administration, Mr. Terwilliger dealt with a Congressional showdown of his own when his boss, Attorney General William P. Barr, refused demands from Democrats to appoint an outside counsel to investigate allegations that the administration had illegally aided Iraq before the first gulf war.

"There’s usually some kernel of substance to these controversies,” he said. "But at some point, they change from largely substantive to being largely political theater, and the reason the attorney general gets into trouble is that they don’t see it coming, and they’re no longer able to function when it reaches that point.”

Read more in The New York Times, "For Recent Attorneys General, Crisis is the Norm"

George Terwilliger is a senior partner at White & Case LLP and global head of the Firm's White Collar Practice Group. Mr. Terwilliger's clients have included some of the world's largest companies in the financial, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and manufacturing industries as well as business and political figures in investigations and in litigation. Mr. Terwilliger has conducted corporate internal investigations and legal risk management reviews around the globe. Mr. Terwilliger's experience includes fifteen years in public service as a federal prosecutor and US Justice Department leader. He was a presidential appointee in two administrations, first as a US Attorney, then Deputy Attorney General, the number two Department of Justice official, and Acting Attorney General of the United States. In private practice, Mr. Terwilliger continues to be involved in matters of public interest, having served as counsel to a US Senate investigation, outside general counsel to federal commissions, and confidant and counselor to elected and appointed officials. He is regularly called upon to provide testimony and commentary on matters of public policy. Read his full biography here.