Hal S. Scott
President and Director

Hal S. Scott is the Nomura Professor and Director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1975.  He teaches courses on Capital Markets Regulation, International Finance, and Securities Regulation. 

He has a B.A. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School, 1965), an M.A. from Stanford University in Political Science (1967), and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1972).  In 1974-1975, before joining Harvard, he clerked for Justice Byron White.

The Program on International Financial Systems, founded in 1986, engages in a variety of research projects. Its book, Capital Adequacy Beyond Basel (Oxford University Press 2004), examines capital adequacy rules for banks, insurance companies and securities firms.  The Program also organizes the annual invitation-only U.S.-Japan, U.S.-Europe, and U.S.-China Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, attended by financial system leaders in the concerned countries.  In addition, the Program directs a concentration in International Finance for LLM students at Harvard Law School.

Professor Scott’s books include the law school textbook International Finance: Transactions, Policy and Regulation (17th ed. Foundation Press 2010); and The Global Financial Crisis (Foundation Press 2009).

Professor Scott is the Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, which in May 2009 released a comprehensive report entitled The Global Financial Crisis:  A Plan for Regulatory Reform.  He is also Co-Chair of the Council on Global Financial Regulation that was formed in 2010. He is an independent director of Lazard, Ltd., a past President of the International Academy of Consumer and Commercial Law and a past Governor of the American Stock Exchange (2002-2005).  He is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board of Oliver Wyman.