George J. Terwilliger III
lawyer

George James Terwilliger III (born June 5, 1950) is an American lawyer and public official. Since January 2024, he has been serving as an attorney and counsel at Terwilliger Law PLLC in Washington, D.C., continuing to represent clients on a selective basis, and prior to that, he served as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods LLP, where he served as head of the firm's Crisis Response practice and co-head of its white collar team from January 2015 to January 2024. Terwilliger, of Vermont, was nominated on February 14, 1992, by President George H. W. Bush to be United States Deputy Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). He succeeded William Barr. As United States Deputy Attorney General, Terwilliger became the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the department, serving in that position from 1991 through 1993. He was appointed to the position by President George H.W. Bush after serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, appointed by President Reagan. He also served as acting United States Attorney General in his capacity as United States Deputy Attorney General following the resignation of William Barr as the 77th United States Attorney General Terwilliger resigned at noon on January 20, 1993, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 508.
Early and family life
Terwilliger was born June 5, 1950, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Metuchen, N.J., went to public school, graduated from Seton Hall University (B.A., 1973) with a degree in Communications and Antioch School of Law (J.D., 1978). Married, Terwilliger has three children and three grandchildren, and resides in Delaplane, Virginia, where he operates the family farm, Pleasant Vale Farm, and manages other business interests.
“George J. Terwilliger III” enters the record as lawyer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what George, Terwilliger and lawyer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q179095. VIAF identifies the subject as 147009192. The Library of Congress control number is no2010171566. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 2024, 2015 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “George J. Terwilliger III” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.