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Scott Alvarez

Retired General Counsel

Federal Reserve Board


Scott G. Alvarez retired in September, 2017, after having served as an attorney at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for 36 years, including 13 years as the General Counsel to the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee.  As the chief legal officer for the Board. he provided legal and policy advice on a wide range of regulatory, administrative, organizational, legislative and other issues related to the duties and operations of the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve System, and FOMC.  During his tenure at the Board, Scott drafted regulations, legislation, testimony and legal and policy memoranda for the Board of Governors and other senior officers of the Federal Reserve, managed the Legal Division, which is comprised of 95 attorneys and 25 staff, and served as a representative of the Federal Reserve on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.  Scott has testified more than a dozen times before Congress on various issues related to banking regulation and the Federal Reserve and before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the Congressional Oversight Panel regarding the financial crisis of 2007-2009.  He has also provided legal and technical assistance to Congress on various regulatory and legislative matters, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, FDICIA, FIRREA, the Federal Reserve Act, the Bank Holding Company Act, and other banking laws.  Recently, Scott is an Adjunct Professor at the Boston University Law School and has been a guest lecturer at the Yale School of Management, Columbia University Law School, New York University Law School, and the UNC Law School.  He was also a contributor to a book on the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 sponsored by the Brooking Institution and the Yale School of Management.  Scott received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University.