Professors Michael Doran, Richard Schragger and Pierre-Hugues Verdier of the University of Virginia School of Law have become members of the American Law Institute. The ALI announced their election Monday.

There are now 31 members of the UVA Law faculty currently affiliated with the institute, which produces scholarly work meant to update or otherwise improve the law. The organization includes judges, lawyers and law professors from the U.S. and around the world who are “selected on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in improving the law,” according to the institute’s website.

Doran is The Honorable Albert V. Bryan Jr. ’50 Research Professor of Law. His research interests include tax policy, executive compensation and legal ethics. A member of the UVA Law faculty since 2014 and from 2005-09, Doran has also served on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center. He teaches courses in tax, property, legal ethics, federal Indian law, Native American law and employee benefits law.

Before turning to academia, he was a partner at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., practicing federal tax and federal pension law. He also served twice in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Doran received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and his law degree from Yale Law School.

Schragger, who joined the faculty in 2001, is the Perre Bowen Professor of Law, and Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of constitutional law and local government law, federalism, urban policy, and the constitutional and economic status of cities. He also writes about law and religion.

He has authored articles on the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses, the role of cities in a federal system, local recognition of same-sex marriage, takings law and economic development, and the history of the anti-chain store movement. A faculty senior fellow at UVA’s Miller Center, he teaches property, local government law, urban law and policy, and church and state.

He is the author of the book “City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age.”

Schragger received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in legal theory from University College London and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He was a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for Dolores Sloviter, then-chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Schragger joined the Washington, D.C., firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, where he practiced for two years.

Verdier, who joined the faculty in 2009, is the John A. Ewald Jr. Research Professor of Law and director of the Graduate Studies Program. He specializes in public international law, banking and financial regulation, and international economic relations. Verdier’s current research focuses on the reception of international law in domestic legal systems, foreign state immunity and customary international law.

He is the author of the book “Global Banks on Trial: U.S. Prosecutions and the Remaking of International Finance.” His paper “International Law in National Legal Systems: An Empirical Investigation,” co-authored with Professor Mila Versteeg, was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in a precedent-setting ruling that holds Canadian companies accountable for human rights abuses.

Prior to joining the faculty, Verdier was a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Canada, practiced corporate and financial law with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York City, and was a visiting assistant professor at Boston University School of Law.

Verdier is a graduate of the joint civil law and common law program of the Faculty of Law, McGill University, and obtained LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School.

In addition, among the newly elected ALI members is alumna Lisa S. Loo ’85, vice president for legal affairs and deputy general counsel at Arizona State University.

Members were selected from confidential nominations submitted by ALI members. ALI formed in 1923 “to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.”

UVA Law Faculty Members of the American Law Institute

Elected Members:

Life Members:

Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.

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