Katarina Barley (born 19 November 1968) is a German politician and lawyer who is the current Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection in the fourth Cabinet of Angela Merkel. She served as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth from 2 June 2017 and as acting Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 28 September 2017, both until 14 March 2018.
A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, she has served as a member of the Bundestag since 2013 and was Secretary-General of her party from 2015 to 2017. She holds law degrees from France and Germany and a doctorate in European law, and formerly worked as a corporate lawyer with the law firm Taylor Wessing in Hamburg, as a judge and as a governmental legal adviser. Barley was born a British citizen and now holds both German and British citizenship.
Barley grew up in Cologne; her father was a British-born journalist who worked with the English-language service of Germany's international broadcaster, the Deutsche Welle, and her mother was a German physician. From birth she only held British citizenship, and she only acquired German citizenship some years later. She is fluent in German, English and French.