Associate Counsel to the President, Office of Counsel to the President

Materials concerning a wide variety of legal matters and legislation. Prominent topics include busing for school desegregation, the Arab boycott of U.S. firms dealing with Israel, the Vietnam-era clemency program, and the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism. Included are sizable files which she inherited from Philip Buchen, Roderick Hills, and Jay French on issues which they had previously handled. A series concerning Secret Service protection remains unprocessed and unavailable for research.

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    Scope and Content Note

    Bobbie Kilberg came to the Ford White House with a background as an attorney, college administrator, Republican activist, and board member of interest groups supporting the rights of Native Americans and women. She also had served in the Nixon administration as a White House Fellow and Domestic Council staff assistant.

    Kilberg served as Associate Counsel to the President from July 1975 to January 1977. Her specific role evolved as she assumed responsibilities from departing staff members or others whose assignments changed. Like most Counsel's Office staff members she handled a broad range of legal questions, but her background and interests led to several assignments concerning the rights of women and Native Americans.

    Although Kilberg worked on various issues or assignments for periods ranging from only a few months to about a year and a half, her collection is much richer than might be expected. When she acquired new responsibilities, she often inherited existing files from her colleagues and added them to her collection. Her files therefore include significant amounts of material produced and collected by Philip Buchen, Roderick Hills, Jay French, and Kenneth Lazarus.

    Kilberg's General Subject File contains relatively small files on a wide variety of issues (e.g., abortion, pocket vetoes, the nomination of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, and Indian affairs). Those topics which are best documented by her files are in separate series, however.

    The more than two thousand pages on the Arab boycott of American businesses having dealings with Israel include documentation on the anti-boycott working group and anti-boycott legislation. In addition to her own working file, her collection includes a box of material on this topic inherited from Roderick Hills when he left the White House in October 1975.

    Similarly, Kilberg's almost three thousand pages on the busing issue include both her own working file and a file maintained by Philip Buchen until he turned it over to Kilberg in June 1976. Topics in both files include busing cases in specific cities and the Ford administration's proposed legislation.

    The collection includes a sizable file on amnesty and the work of the Presidential Clemency Board. The bulk is comprised of recommendations from the Clemency Board and the Department of Justice to approve or disapprove of clemency for specific draft evaders. Copies of these recommendations also appear in the White House Central Files. A smaller, but significant, batch of material concerns unsuccessful attempts by Charles Goodell and others to push a broad program of amnesty in the closing months of the administration.

    Kilberg's file on the work of the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism contains minutes of all 57 meetings held during the Ford administration and several studies completed by or for the Committee. At the present time, however, much of the series is security classified.

    A series concerning Secret Service protection for foreign embassies and visiting foreign dignitaries is unprocessed and therefore unavailable for research.

    Related Materials (April 1991)
    The Counsel's Office files of Philip Buchen and Edward Schmults concern many of the same issues and activities as the Kilberg files. In addition, information on many legal issues appears in White House Central Files Subject File (especially in category JL: Judicial-Legal Matters).

    Collections with significant amounts on the Arab Boycott include White House Central Files (especially category TA 1/CO 1/Arabs: Boycotts-Embargoes/Arabs) and the files of John Marsh, Edward Schmults, and David Lissy.

    Much on busing can be found in Central Files (especially category HU 2-1: Human Rights/Education-Schooling); the White House Special Files Unit Files; the Edward Hutchinson Papers; and the staff files of James Cannon, Edward Schmults, David Lissy, Richard Parsons, and Arthur Quern.

    White House Central Files categories FG 6-28 (Presidential Clemency Board) and JL 1 and its subdivisions (Amnesties - Clemencies - Pardons) include much on the Ford administration's clemency program. White House staff files containing significant documentation on that program include those of Philip Buchen, John Marsh, Geoffrey Shepard, and Theodore Marrs.

    Additional materials on the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism can be found in Central Files category FG 355.

    Extent

    10 linear feet (ca. 20,000 pages)

    Record Type
    Textual
    Donor

    Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-8)

    Last Modified Date
    Collection Type
    Access

    Open. Some items may be temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

    Processed by

    William McNitt, May 1991

    Biography

    Barbara ("Bobbie") Greene Kilberg

    October 25, 1944 - Born, New York, NY

    1965 - A.B., Vassar College

    1966 - M.A. in Political Science, Columbia University

    1968 - Assistant to Richard P. Nathan, Domestic Research Director, Nelson Rockefeller presidential campaign

    1969 - LL.B., Yale University Law School

    1969-70 - White House Fellow assigned to the office of Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.

    1969-75 - Board member or officer of organizations including: National Women's Political Caucus, Common Cause, Ripon Society, Native American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Native American Lobby, Advisory Committee on Women to the Secretary of Labor, HEW Secretary's Advisory Committee on the Rights and Responsibilities of Women, Women's Equity Action League, First Women's Bank and Trust Company

    1970-71 - Staff Assistant, Domestic Council

    1971-73 - Attorney, law firm of Arnold & Porter, Washington

    1973-75 - Vice President for Academic Affairs, Mount Vernon College, Washington, DC

    1975-77 - Associate Counsel to the President, White House

    1989-92 - Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Director of the Public Liaison Office, The White House