To end the insatiable expansion of the federal bureaucracy and stem the tide of new regulations, the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree Chamber) formed a Center for Legal Action (CLA). With the goal of returning rulemaking authority to the citizens and their elected representatives, CLA will challenge the barrage of federal regulations and mandates that raise energy costs, reduce employment, diminish consumer choice, restrict basic freedoms, and erode the constitutional rights of individuals and businesses.

With two-time former Attorney General Bill Barr serving as the Chairman of CLA’s Advisory Board, CLA will deploy a wide range of tactics, including litigation, congressional testimony, media appearances, thought leadership and support of lawsuits brought by other parties in important regulatory and constitutional cases. 

Our Team

Hon. William Barr

Chairman of the Center for Legal Action Advisory Board

Two-time former United States Attorney General William Barr will serve as the Chairman of the Center for Legal Action’s Advisory Board, working alongside AmFree’s Chairman Terry Branstad and CEO Gentry Collins.
General Barr will advise the Center for Legal Action on growing its advisory board, and on developing its legal action strategy. General Barr will help CLA develop a network of outside firms comprised of the best legal talent in America.

A native New Yorker, Barr earned his A.B. and M.A. degrees at Columbia University and, while working at the CIA, earned his law degree at night at George Washington University. Barr spent a decade practicing law at a Washington firm, interrupted by a stint in the Reagan White House. President George H.W. Bush successively appointed Barr Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and finally the 77th Attorney General.

After the Bush Administration, Barr spent 15 years as General Counsel of GTE Corporation, and its successor company, Verizon, where he headed legal, regulatory and government affairs activities; played a lead role on behalf of local phone companies in framing the litigation strategy, and personally arguing cases, that successfully dismantled the FCC’s regulatory regime, forcing deregulation of telecommunications companies and paving the way for the wide-scale deployment of broadband.

After retiring from Verizon, Barr served on a number of public company boards and as Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis. In late 2018, with the Trump Administration careening toward a possible constitutional crisis, Barr agreed to serve again as Attorney General, and was confirmed as the 85th Attorney General.

Barr is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a Co-Founder of the Torridon Group LLC.

Machalagh Carr

Director, Center for Legal Action

Machalagh Carr is a trusted and strategic counselor with decades of private sector and government experience. She has nimbly navigated the intersection of congressional investigations and oversight, law, geopolitics, and policy, most recently as the top staffer in Article I as Chief of Staff to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Prior to her role as Chief of Staff, she served as General Counsel for the Speaker and Office of the Republican Leader at the U.S. House of
Representatives. Previously, she served as General Counsel & Parliamentarian for the Committee on Ways and Means, where she handled all legal and procedural issues for the Committee. Before that, she was the Oversight Staff Director at the Committee where she led the investigations and oversight of all issues within the Committee’s jurisdiction. Prior to joining Ways and Means, she served as the Director of Oversight and Investigations for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and as Senior Oversight Counsel at the Committee on Natural Resources.
Previously, Machalagh served in the Office of Global Compliance of an international energy company where she conducted internal anti-corruption investigations, audits, and compliance reviews for the company. Before her in-house experience she practiced in the Litigation, White Collar, and Government Investigations Group at Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal LLP (now Dentons). Directly after law school, Machalagh clerked for the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. She taught Trial Practice at Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and lives in Virginia with her husband and three sons.