Biography

[EPA press release - March 20, 1985]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that President Reagan has nominated A. James Barnes to be the agency's Deputy Administrator.

Barnes served as EPA's General Counsel until his appointment as Acting Deputy Administrator on Jan. 5, 1985, under EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas.

Barnes was selected General Counsel by William D. Ruckelshaus when he returned as agency administrator in May 1983. Barnes had served as assistant to Ruckelshaus when he first headed the agency from 1970 to 1973.

Before he became EPA's General Counsel, Barnes was General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1981 to 1983. Barnes began his federal service in 1969 at the Department of Justice where he was a trial attorney and special assistant to the head of the Civil Division. Barnes returned to the Justice Department as an assistant to the Deputy Attorney General after his first term at EPA.

In 1974, Barnes managed William Milliken's successful re-election campaign for Governor of Michigan. After the election, he joined the law firm of Beveridge and Diamond in Washington, D.C., where he was a partner until he was nominated by President Reagan to be USDA's General Counsel.

Barnes received his B.A. from Michigan State and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1967. After he was graduated, he taught for two years at the Indiana University School of Business Administration, and he is the author of two textbooks on business law.