Thomas Vartanian is to retire from the global law firm of Dechert to set up a new financial regulatory institute at the Law & Economics Centre of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Vartanian will also become Professor of Law and Director of Scalia Law School’s new academic concentration on financial services laws. Robert Ledig, his colleague of 34 years who began his career as a bank regulator, will become the director of the institute and a professor of law. Both have spent years guiding clients through the thicket of financial regulation.

The new institute is opening early this year. George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university, located near Washington DC.