Barry Ray Grissom (born April 12, 1954) is an American attorney who served as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the District of Kansas from 2010 to 2016. On July 1, 2019, Barry Grissom officially launched his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate. On October 17, 2019, he dropped out of the race, and endorsed former Kansas state Senator

Barbara Bollier Barbara Goolsbee Bollier (born January 13, 1958) is an American physician and politician. From 2017 to 2021, she was a member of the Kansas Senate representing the 7th district, which includes Mission Hills, Kansas in Johnson County. Bollier i ...

for the race.

Education

Grissom graduated from

Willowbrook High School Willowbrook High School (WBHS) is a public four-year high school in Villa Park, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The school is located approximately half a mile north of Illinois Route 38 on Ardmore Ave. It is a part of the DuPage ...

in 1972 and went to

Johnson County Community College Johnson County Community College (JCCC) is a public community college in Overland Park, Kansas, which is in Johnson County. History In 1963, Johnson County Commissioners, recognizing the emerging community college movement and seeking to acco ...

and then the University of Kansas where he earned a bachelor's degree in Science in 1977. He then studied law at Oklahoma City University, earning a JD in 1981. At OCU, he was a member of the Law Review, the Moot Court Board and the Order of the Barristers.

Career

Returning to Kansas, he began a private practice in 1983, focused on representing victims of negligence, on civil rights and labor issues, including

Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppres ...

cases. From 1986 to 2010 he was a member of the board of governors for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. He was appointed the U.S. Attorney for Kansas by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in 2010, serving until April 2016, after which he joined the national Polsinelli law firm. He had been a member of

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African America ...

's Attorney General's Advisory Committee, as well as becoming a panelist on the

Brennan Center The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is a nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Generally considered liberal, the Brennan C ...

's Blue Ribbon Panel on the redefinition of federal prosecution priorities. The panel's report emphasized both targeting violent offenders at the same time addressing issues of over-incarceration. In April 2018, he founded the Grissom Law Group which additionally focused on public policy advocacy. In 2018, he became the Senior Vice President of

Electrum Partners Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially, and ...

U.S. Attorney

As the U.S. Attorney for Kansas, Barry Grissom focused on civil rights enforcement and community outreach. During his tenure, Grissom founded the Kansas Civil Rights Symposium (which promoted efforts to improve community relations with law enforcement), the District's first Human Trafficking Working Group (which coordinated the work of NGO's with law enforcement to curb human trafficking), directed the District's Project Safe Neighborhood program (which targeted felons who unlawfully possessed firearms), and oversaw the District's Project Safe Childhood program (which targeted child sex offenders). During his tenure as US Attorney, various subordinates kept recordings of attorney-client phone calls of inmates in a detention facility. The US District Court found the office to be in contempt of court. A number of convictions and/or cases have been reversed or abandoned due to this unconstitutional activity. Grissom claimed to be unaware.

2020 U.S. Senate campaign

On July 1, 2019, Grissom announced he would run for the U.S. Senate in Kansas. He dropped out of the race on October 17, 2019, and endorsed state Senator

External sources

PBS Interview on gun violence

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grissom, Barry R. 1954 births Living people University of Kansas alumni Oklahoma City University School of Law alumni United States Attorneys for the District of Kansas People from Leawood, Kansas Kansas Democrats Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections