The University of Michigan law professor knows the law. All of it. Probably as well, if not better, than many of our Supreme Court Justices. He teaches Transitional Law, International Finance, Financial Institutions and Jurisdiction and Choice of Law - and law students around the country would climb mountains to hear his wisdom. It was his knowledge, along with the committee as a whole, that forever reformed Wall Street. Regulations were overhauled in their entirety, credit rating agencies changed, consumer protection is at historical heights and countless other initiatives were put into place.
It was likely a tough decision to take a leave of absence from the university to serve in the role of Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions. For close to two years, he focused on the new bill that's now law and will forever change the way the financial sector ebbs and flows. The primary purpose, according to Barr, ''...it creates a new bureau that will look out for the interests of American households with definitive rules of the road for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products and services''.
Before Barr accepted the position with the government and before he served in his current role as University of Michigan law professor, he spent time as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution, both as Special Assistant to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton's administration. Further, Barr is also a co founder of the International Transactions Clinic at the University of Michigan and oversees what's best described as massive empirical research efforts for everything from low income households and high interest credit cards.
The busy professor also finds time to wear his author's hat when he's not invoking the senses and challenging the minds of what are soon to be some of the nation's top lawyers, courtesy of Robert S. Barr's influence and determined mindset. He's easily one of the most powerful assets at UM and it shows in the quality of education graduating seniors leave the campus with as they forge forward into a sometimes challenging legal world.
For more information on the University of Michigan Law School, visit the site at Law.umich.edu and for more information on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, visit GovTrack.us.
