Sean Hagan

Sean Hagan, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is former general counsel for the International Monetary Fund, professor from practice at Georgetown Law, and advisor to Rothschild & Co.

Hagan was general counsel for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 14 years (2004–18). In this capacity, Hagan advised the IMF’s management, executive board, and membership on all legal aspects of the IMF’s operations, including its regulatory, advisory, and lending functions. He also led a number of policy initiatives, including most recently the reform of the IMF’s anti-corruption policy. Hagan has published extensively on both IMF law and a broad range of issues relating to the prevention and resolution of financial crises, with a particular emphasis on insolvency and the restructuring of debt, including sovereign debt.

Prior to beginning work at the IMF, Hagan was in private practice, first in New York and subsequently in Tokyo. He received his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center and also received a Master of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

During the 2018–19 academic year, Hagan was a visiting fellow at Oxford University (Exeter College).