J. W. Verret

J.W. Verret was a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University from 2008-2018.

From May of 2013 through April of 2015, Verret was on leave to serve as chief economist at House Financial Services Committee. Verret rejoined the Mercatus Center in May of 2015.

As a senior affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center’s Program on Financial Regulation, he regularly briefs Congressional staff, members of Congress, SEC Commissioners, and other financial regulatory agencies on financial regulation topics. Verret is an associate professor of law at Antonin Scalia Law School. His primary research interests are corporate governance, securities regulation, and executive compensation.

He received his JD and MA in public policy in 2006 from Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, respectively. While in law school, Verret received an Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics at the Harvard Program on Corporate Governance under the guidance of Professor Lucian Bebchuk.

Verret served as a law clerk for Vice-Chancellor John W. Noble of the Delaware Court of Chancery. Prior to joining the faculty at Mason Law, Verret was an associate in the SEC Enforcement Defense Practice Group at Skadden, Arps in Washington, DC. He has written extensively on corporate law topics, including a recent paper, Delaware's Guidance, coauthored with Chief Justice Myron T. Steele of the Delaware Supreme Court. His academic work has been featured in the Yale Journal on Regulation, The Business Lawyer, the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, and the Virginia Law and Business Review. Verret was selected by the Northwestern Law School Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth for a 2009-2010 Searle-Kaufmann Research Fellowship.

Verret has been invited to testify before various Congressional committees regarding all of the central provisions of the Obama administration's 2009 financial regulatory reform proposals.

Verret has been featured in media outlets nationwide, including ABC News, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Wall Street Journal. Verret's writings have been published by outlets including The Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and the Orange County Register.