Griffin Bell

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Griffin Boyette Bell (born October 31, 1918) is an American lawyer and former Presidential Cabinet member.

Born in Americus, Georgia, he attended public schools and Georgia Southwestern College and then the Walter F. George School of Law of Mercer University. He practiced law at King & Spalding in Georgia from 1948 to 1961, and is still affiliated with the firm.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Bell to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1961. In December 1976, President Jimmy Carter nominated him to become the 72nd Attorney General of the United States, and he served until 1979. He has served on many corporate and charitable boards since leaving the Attorney General's office.

From 1985-87, Bell served on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa, and in 1989, he was appointed Vice Chairman of President George H.W. Bush’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform. During the Iran Contra investigation, he was counsel to President Bush. He supported the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004.

Bell was the first cabinet official named to Mr. Blackwell's list of best dressed Americans in 1978, with Blackwell citing the attorney general's penchant for the wide, sleek, bold-colored ties that were emblematic of mid-to-late 1970s fashion.