B. Culvahouse earned the BA in economics with high honors at UT in 1970 and then earned the JD from New York University in 1973, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar and editor in chief of the Annual Survey of American Law. He served as chief legislative assistant to Howard H. Baker Jr. from 1973 to 1976 and then went into private legal practice with the firm of O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, DC. He was the chief counsel to President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989, advising the president on matters ranging from the Iran-Contra investigations, to the nominations of Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court, to the legal aspects of the intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. He chaired the Interagency Lawyers Committee on War Powers and the President’s Committee on Federal Judiciary Nominations. In 1989 he received the President’s Citizens Medal, and he received the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Department of Defense in 1992.
Following service as White House counsel, he returned to O’Melveny & Myers, becoming chairman of the firm. He has served as editor in chief of Annual Survey of American Law.