C. Boyden Gray

Clayland Boyden Gray (February 6, 1943 – May 21, 2023) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as White House Counsel from 1989 to 1993 and as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2006 to 2007. He was a founding partner of the Washington, D.C.–based law firm Boyden Gray & Associates LLP.

Gray attended Fay School and St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1964, where he wrote for The Harvard Crimson. He also served as a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1965 to 1970. In 1968, he joined the firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr), and became a partner in 1976.

Gray served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Department of Justice Advisory Committee. In 2002, he founded the Committee for Justice, a Washington, DC–based nonprofit dedicated to screening judicial and US Justice Department nominees.

In January 2006, President George W. Bush gave him a recess appointment as United States Ambassador to the European Union. He took a leave of absence from the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to accept that position. When Gray emerged as Bush's preferred candidate for the post of the United States' ambassador to the EU in July 2005, the potential nomination deeply perturbed open source advocates, who viewed his ties to Microsoft with suspicion.

Gray's last government position was as Special Envoy for European Affairs and Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy at the Mission of the United States to the European Union, having been nominated by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on January 11, 2008. On March 31, the White House announced his appointment to the additional post of Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy. He was a fundraiser for Donald Trump, the last Republican president of his lifetime, and was part of a legal team Trump formed after the 2020 United States presidential election. In addition, Gray was also a member of the Federalist Society, Harvard University's Committee on University Development, the Board of Trustees of the Washington Scholarship Fund, St. Mark's School, and National Cathedral School.

Personal life and death Gray married Carol Taylor in 1984; they had a daughter and later divorced. He died from heart failure at his home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2023, at the age of 80.