Yesha Yadav 
Professor of Law | Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES
Expert in financial market regulation, securities regulation and corporate bankruptcy, focusing on market structure and digital assets.
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Biography
Yesha Yadav's research interests lie in financial market regulation, securities regulation and corporate bankruptcy, focusing on market structure, exchange design, payments, digital asset regulation, distressed debt and restructuring. She has developed particular specialization in market microstructure, examining the regulation of trading ecosystems for various asset classes, notably, equity, U.S. Treasuries, corporate bonds and cryptocurrencies.
Before joining Vanderbilt's Law faculty in 2011, Professor Yadav worked as a legal counsel with the World Bank in its finance, private-sector development and infrastructure unit, where she specialized in financial regulation and insolvency, and creditor-debtor rights. Before joining the World Bank in 2009, she practiced from 2004-08 in the London and Paris offices of Clifford Chance in the firm's financial regulation and derivatives group. As part of her work in the area of payments regulation, she advised the European Payments Council on the establishment of the Single Euro Payments Area.
Since joining Vanderbilt, Professor Yadav has served as honorary advisor to India’s Financial Services Law Reform Commission and on the Atlantic Council’s Task Force on Divergence, Transatlantic Financial Reform and G-20 Agenda. She has served as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Technology Advisory Committee, where she sat on the Distributed Ledger Technology and Algorithmic Trading Subcommittees. Professor Yadav is also a member of Nasdaq’s Hearing Panel, and the current Vice-Chair of the Tennessee State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Professor Yadav earned an M.A. in Law and Modern Languages (First Class) at the University of Cambridge, after which she earned an LL.M. at Harvard Law School. She was a Vanderbilt University Chancellor Faculty Fellow for 2019-21. In 2022, she won Vanderbilt University’s Chancellor Research Award for her research into U.S. Treasury market regulation. She was honored in 2020 as a second-time winner of the student-selected Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award for excellence in teaching.
Areas of Expertise (8)
U.S. Treasury
Digital Asset Regulation
Market Structures
Securities Regulation
Financial Market Regulation
Corporate Bankruptcy
Exchange Design
Cryptocurrency
Education (2)
Harvard Law School: LL.M., Law
University of Cambridge: M.A., Law and Modern Languages
Links (1)
Selected Media Appearances (10)
Signature Bank’s collapse spells trouble for cryptocurrency industry
The Washington Post online
2023-03-13
“It’s very dark days at present for crypto,” said Yesha Yadav, who studies digital financial regulation and is an associate dean at Vanderbilt University Law School. “The big danger here is that the folks decide to go offshore … [where] regulators are having a much harder time monitoring.”
Why did Silicon Valley Bank collapse?
ABC Australia radio
2023-03-12
The last time an American bank collapsed, it nearly took the financial system with it. So it's understandable that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which provided finance to US and international tech start ups, has sent shudders through the banking sector.
Yesha Yadav of Vanderbilt Law School discusses her testimony on Capitol Hill and digital asset regulation
CNBC tv
2023-02-24
On today’s show, Professor Yesha Yadav of Vanderbilt University Law School discusses last week’s hearing on Capitol Hill regarding why financial system safeguards are needed for digital assets.
FTX, Celsius Bankruptcies With Billions on Line Push Judges Into Legal Void
Bloomberg online
2023-02-08
“Bankruptcy courts are doing things that the normal regulatory system is not able to provide, like guidance,” said Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt Law School and former World Bank lawyer who specialized in financial regulation and insolvency. “It’s essentially becoming like a proxy regulator.”
Sam Bankman-Fried's political donations totaled millions. FTX could sue to recover them.
USA Today online
2022-12-16
Sam Bankman-Fried and two of his close colleagues at the now-bankrupt FTX donated nearly $80 million to political candidates and causes, but those who received the money may have to return it as the company tries to pay back its creditors. That’s because bankruptcy courts often let companies claw back the money that they have given to others in the two years prior to filing for bankruptcy, according to Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University with expertise in financial and securities regulation. Sometimes, that period is longer than two years, she said.
Parents of Sam Bankman-Fried face scrutiny over their roles in FTX
CNN online
2022-12-14
“He is a highly knowledgeable and deeply expert person in areas that concern the set-up and operation of complex companies,” said Yesha Yadav, professor of law at Vanderbilt University. “Arguably, his qualifications and academic stature can work against him as part of any legal case, because the argument may be made that he really should have spotted problems.”
U.S. court weighs novel issue of crypto ownership in bankruptcy
Reuters online
2022-12-07
"That's going to be a really thorny issue for the court, because there's the representation of what should have been happening versus what is actually happening on the ground," said Yesha Yadav, an associate dean and law professor at Vanderbilt University.
Treasury market reforms draw flak from funds and high-speed traders
Financial Times online
2022-06-30
Yesha Yadav, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said reporting requirements also included in the proposal would allow for more transparency in the often opaque market and offer insights into flash crashes or market manipulation. Capital requirements could stop traders from taking leveraged positions that are many times the size of their balance sheets, she added.
Inflation and Deficits Don’t Dim the Appeal of U.S. Bonds
The New York Times online
2022-01-30
But borrowing costs for the American government have trended lower, not higher. Congress issued roughly $5 trillion in Treasury debt securities to finance pandemic fiscal relief, “and we had, effectively, zero cost of capital for most of it,” said Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University whose scholarship covers the Treasury market’s structure and regulations.
Republicans Block Latest Effort by Democrats to Advance Debt-Ceiling Bill
The Wall Street Journal online
2021-09-28
Yesha Yadav, a Vanderbilt University law professor who specializes in financial market structure, said the Biden administration could also try to act on its own, either by minting a coin of any denomination and depositing that with the Federal Reserve to create a new source of money, or by acting unilaterally by citing President Biden’s responsibility to comply with the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says the validity of the public debt “shall not be questioned.”
