Jason MacLean joins the Law School from Canada as an academic. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan in the School of Environment and Sustainability and has spent the last decade researching and teaching about regulatory capture. MacLean holds a BCL and JD from McGill University and a PhD in Canadian climate law and policy from the University of Alberta. In joining the Law School, he is excited to dive deeper into his research interests in regulatory issues within the United States.

Tell us a bit about your background in the law.

I began my career as a litigator on Wall Street with the firm Shearman & Sterling LLP (now A&O Shearman). After clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada, I practiced corporate and constitutional litigation in Toronto. During that time I also started writing about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and that ineluctably spurred my interest in the problem of regulatory capture.

What is motivating your decision to get an LLM?

Since leaving legal practice for academia, I have been teaching and writing about regulatory capture and other aspects of regulation for over ten years. Much of that work touched or even centered on the US administrative landscape, including the work of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As my research into US regulatory issues deepened, the more the idea of expanding my understanding of the US legal system by studying at a leading US law school appealed to me.  

Why did you choose the University of Chicago Law School?

The University of Chicago Law School was my first choice for several reasons. Serious, systematic research on regulatory capture began at the University of Chicago, and that research tradition continues at the University’s George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. The Law School is among the very best in the nation. It is renowned for its commitments to interdisciplinarity, rigorous scholarly research, and robust, open-minded debate. It is the ideal place to further develop scholarship regarding legal and regulatory frameworks that advance the public interest.

What do you hope/plan to do with your LLM after you graduate?

I plan to continue researching regulatory capture, with an emphasis on proposing effective solutions. I also hope to explore new areas of scholarship, including US civil procedure and federal courts. 

What are you most looking forward to in coming to the Law School, the US, and/or the city of Chicago?

The faculty workshops and spending time by the lake.

Any interesting hobbies or interests you’d like to share?

I’m slowly learning to play the piano. I’m also learning—a little less slowly—to program in Python.

What is a “fun fact” about you? 

I’m Canadian, but I don’t play hockey. (I’m kidding—of course I play hockey! It’s the law.)

Anything else you’d like to share?

I’m very much looking forward to meeting everyone and participating in such a vibrant intellectual community.