Georgetown Law

Chris Brummer is the Agnes N. Williams Research Professor and Faculty Director of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law.  He lectures widely on fintech, finance and global governance, as well as on public and private international law, market microstructure and international trade. In this capacity, he routinely participates in, and lends his analysis to, multilateral dialogues, and has testified before US and EU legislative bodies. He is also the founder of Washington, DC’s Fintech Week.

Professor Brummer recently concluded a three-year term as a member of the National Adjudicatory Council of FINRA, an organization empowered by Congress to regulate the securities industry, where his work was praised as making a significant contribution to advancing investor protection. He was then nominated twice by President Obama to serve as a Commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and received unanimous approval for the post by the Senate Agriculture Committee prior to the 2017 election. The nomination was withdrawn by President Trump upon taking office. 

Dr. Brummer is the author of several books, most recently Minilateralism: How Trade Alliances, Soft Law and Financial Engineering are Redefining Economic Statecraft (2014).  He is currently editing a joint Georgetown-IMF publication, Cryptoassets, and is writing a book on Fintech Law.

Professor Brummer earned his J.D. with honors from Columbia Law School and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Before becoming a professor, he practiced law in the New York and London offices of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute and was the inaugural C. Boyden Gray Fellow at the Atlantic Council, where he launched the think tank’s Transatlantic Finance Initiative.

Professor Brummer has taught at several leading universities in varying capacities including the universities of Basel, Heidelberg, Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, and the London School of Economics. His scholarly and professional webpages can be found here and here.