page_title: Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr.
section_title: Reagan Chief Counsel
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. / Career / Reagan Chief Counsel
caption_attribution_description: Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr.
context_page_description: Arthur Boggess Culvahouse Jr. is an American attorney and diplomat who is currently serving as United States Ambassador to Australia.
  He is the former Chair of O'Melveny & Myers, an international law firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with offices around the world. Culvahouse also served as counsel to Ronald Reagan in the last two years of his presidency, and was entrusted by John McCain and Donald Trump to vet their vice presidential candidates.
  On November 6, 2018, Culvahouse was announced to be the new appointment as the United States' Ambassador to Australia, a posting confirmed by the Senate on January 2, 2019. He presented his credentials to the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, on March 13, 2019.
context_section_description: From 1987 to 1989, Culvahouse served as Counsel to U.S. President Ronald Reagan.  As White House Counsel, he advised the President on matters ranging from Iran-Contra investigations, to the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy, to the legal aspects of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
  Culvahouse served as Bork's "handler" during his rejected Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court.
  In January 1989, Reagan awarded Culvahouse the Presidential Citizens’ Medal, an award established in 1969 to "recognize citizens who performed exemplary deeds of service for the country or their fellow citizens."
caption: Reagan administration photograph of Culvahouse
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