American lawyer and diplomat Clayland Gray (February 6, 1943 – May 21, 2023) served as White House Counsel from 1989 to 1993 and as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2006 to 2007. He was a founding member of the legal team at Boyden Gray & Associates LLP in Washington, D.C.
Gray worked as a law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren after graduating. He began working for Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in 1968; this company is now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. In 1976, he was made a partner. Gray was once a Democrat, but by the end of the 1970s, he had defected to the Republican Party in protest of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. He served on the boards of directors for the American Abroad Media, FreedomWorks, The European Institute, and the Atlantic Council.
C. Boyden Gray: White House counsel to President G.H.W. Bush dies at 80
C. Boyden Gray, a patrician conservative attorney who worked as President George H.W. Bush’s White House counsel and had a significant role in guiding Republican choices for the judiciary and the Justice Department as a strategist and fundraiser, passed away overnight on May 20 or 21 at his home in Washington. He was 80.