Nancy Liao

Nancy Liao serves as the John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell Executive Director of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law and Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale University.

Her academic credentials include:

• J.D., Yale Law School, 2005
• A.B., Harvard University, 2002 (magna cum laude in government)

Liao's research focuses on the intersection of technology, finance, and law, with particular expertise in blockchain applications in financial markets. She examines how distributed ledger technology challenges traditional legal frameworks, especially regarding settlement finality in payment systems. Her work bridges theoretical legal analysis with practical regulatory implications for financial market infrastructure.

Her recent publications analyze both permissioned and permissionless blockchain systems, exploring their compatibility with existing financial regulations. She investigates whether distributed ledger technology can satisfy international standards for settlement finality and how legal frameworks might evolve to accommodate technological innovations in finance.

Liao has extensive regulatory experience, having served at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission where she led Dodd-Frank implementation teams, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as counsel and officer, and as Assistant General Counsel at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. She began her legal career at Latham & Watkins LLP.

As Executive Director, she hosted the 2017 Weil, Gotshal & Manges Roundtable on Blockchain and regularly speaks before the SEC, industry conferences, and academic forums. She teaches Financial Markets and Corporate Law Clinic at Yale Law School, connecting her regulatory expertise with academic instruction.