James Y. Stern — profile dossier

Pandemic-program role: One of two Deputy General Counsels at Treasury during the COVID response; per his own William & Mary bio he "played a major role in the establishment of various Treasury Department programs implemented in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, totaling more than one trillion dollars". (The ">$1T" figure is W&M's framing, not PPP-specific.)
Institution · office: Treasury · Office of the General Counsel · Type: political · non-career SES
Tenure (relief-relevant): Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2019–2021 (on leave from the William & Mary faculty). CARES Act enacted Mar 27, 2020; he was in seat for the entirety of the 2020 relief build-out.¹²

The job (role mechanics)

Level / appointment: Non-career SES. The 2020 Plum Book lists his exact row under Treasury → General Counsel as "Deputy General Counsel … James Yarbrough Stern … NA … ES": Type of Appointment NA (Noncareer SES), Pay Plan ES (Senior Executive Service), no level/grade or tenure-expiration printed.²
Reports to: General Counsel of the Treasury, Brian Callanan (PAS, Executive Schedule IV), Treasury's Senate-confirmed top lawyer Sept 2019–Jan 2021. Stern was one of two Deputy GCs in the 2020 Plum Book; the other was Brian P. Morrissey Jr. (also NA / ES).²³
Core responsibility: Deputy General Counsel within the Treasury Legal Division. Per his W&M bio, in that capacity he (a) oversaw major Treasury litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts; (b) worked national-security matters incl. international sanctions and CFIUS; (c) helped spearhead cryptocurrency regulation and related oversight of financial institutions; (d) worked domestic and international tax policy; and (e) "played a major role in the establishment of" the Department's COVID-19 relief programs.¹
Pay: Non-career SES (Pay Plan ES per the 2020 Plum Book); no individual salary figure is documented.
Expectations / mandate: Senior legal officer reporting to the General Counsel; provide legal structuring, clearance, and litigation oversight across the Department's portfolio. ¹³
Tenure norm: Non-career SES serve at the pleasure of the President / agency head (no fixed term; the Plum Book prints no tenure-expiration for his row). His actual dates: 2019–2021, on leave from W&M, departing at the close of the Trump I administration and returning to teaching.¹²

Who they are

James Y. Stern ("James Yarbrough Stern" in federal personnel records) is a property / intellectual-property / private-law scholar who took a roughly two-year leave from academia to serve as a senior Treasury lawyer during 2019–2021, then returned to the William & Mary law faculty. He is a member of the Virginia bar, sits on the Virginia Bar Association's Boyd-Graves Conference, and is an honorary member of London's Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR). ¹²

Education

B.A. — Harvard College / Harvard University (undergraduate degree).¹
J.D. — University of Virginia School of Law; elected to the Order of the Coif; awarded the Traynor Prize for the best paper by a graduating student.¹
Clerkships: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; then Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court.¹

Career before

Law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III (4th Cir.), then to Justice Anthony Kennedy (SCOTUS).¹
Joined the William & Mary Law School faculty in 2013; scholarship centered on property and private-law theory, intellectual property, and privacy, with articles in the California Law Review, Harvard Law Review, and Michigan Law Review (cited by courts including the U.S. Supreme Court). Honors include the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship (Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property), the Temple Bar Scholarship (American Inns of Court Foundation), the Phi Beta Kappa Rockefeller Award, and the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence.¹⁴
Took leave from W&M to serve as Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Treasury (2019–2021).¹²

Role in the pandemic relief programs

What the first-party record says (general): His W&M bio states he "played a major role in the establishment of various Treasury Department programs implemented in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, totaling more than one trillion dollars," for which the Secretary of the Treasury awarded him the Department's Distinguished Service Award.¹⁴ His bio does not name a specific program.
The office he sat in: Stern was one of two Deputy General Counsels under General Counsel Brian Callanan during 2020 (2020 Plum Book); the Legal Division's CARES Act work is described in the Callanan profile.²³
His bio credits him with overseeing "major Treasury Department litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts" during his tenure.¹

Documents written or signed

No public Federal Register notice, interim final rule, or Treasury press release we have bears James Y. Stern's byline or signature; signatory authority for ESF/CARES Act actions rested with the Secretary and program officials.¹³
For the named Treasury CARES Act instruments his division supported, the public artifacts (e.g., the Mar 30, 2020 Title IV loan procedures and airline payroll-support guidance) issued under Treasury / the Secretary, not under a Deputy GC byline (see Callanan).³

Career after / where they are now

Returned to William & Mary Law School after leaving Treasury in 2021; resumed teaching Property, Intellectual Property, and Torts, plus seminars on sanctions/economic statecraft, cryptocurrency law and policy, and music licensing.¹
Current titles (2025–2026): Professor of Law and Director, William & Mary Property Rights Project; Editor of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal; Reporter of Civil Decisions for the Court of Appeals of Virginia.¹
American Law Institute: Elected member, 2022 (announced by W&M Aug 18, 2022, as one of ~60 newly elected members that cycle).⁴⁵ His W&M bio now also lists him as Associate Reporter for the ALI's Restatement (Fourth) of the Law of Property, an appointment referenced as ~2026.¹⁵
Federalist Society: listed as a contributor ("Prof. James Y. Stern") on fedsoc.org.⁶
Where he is now: Williamsburg, Virginia — full-time William & Mary law professor.¹

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

William & Mary Law School faculty bio, "James Y. Stern," Professor of Law and Director, W&M Property Rights Project — degrees (J.D., University of Virginia; B.A., Harvard College), clerkships (Wilkinson, 4th Cir.; Kennedy, SCOTUS), Order of the Coif / Traynor Prize, and the full Treasury paragraph incl. "Deputy General Counsel at the United States Department of the Treasury," oversight of SCOTUS/federal litigation, sanctions/CFIUS, cryptocurrency regulation, tax policy, "a major role in the establishment of various Treasury Department programs implemented in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, totaling more than one trillion dollars," and the Treasury Distinguished Service Award; also "Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement (Fourth) of the Law of Property" and "Reporter of Civil Decisions for the Court of Appeals of Virginia" — William & Mary Law School faculty bio, "James Y. Stern," Professor of Law and Director, W&M Property Rights Project —... (original: law2.wm.edu · stored capture) ↩
United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions (Plum Book) 2020, GPO, Department of the Treasury section (General Counsel) — exact row: "Deputy General Counsel … James Yarbrough Stern … NA … ES" (Type of Appointment NA = Noncareer SES; Pay Plan ES). Same block lists the General Counsel as Brian Callanan (PAS / EX IV) and a second Deputy GC, Brian Paul Morrissey Jr. (NA / ES). Treasury-section file: Gpo Plumbook 2020 8 23 Pdf 5cf23443cf109f5a (original: govinfo.gov · stored capture) (full volume: United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, 2020 — Committee on Oversight and Reform (original: govinfo.gov · stored capture)) ↩
Companion profile in this corpus, "Brian Callanan" (Treasury General Counsel, 2019–2021, Stern's direct superior) — for the Treasury Legal Division's CARES Act work: Title IV / ESF §4003 facilities (~$500B), Federal Reserve §13(3) backstops, and PPP §1102/§1106 rulemaking; underlying Treasury source SM960 (Mar 30, 2020 Title IV loan procedures / airline payroll-support guidance): Treasury press release SM960 Mar 30, 2020, "Treasury Releases Guidance on Payroll Support to Aid Airline Industry Emp... (original: home.treasury.gov · stored capture) ↩
William & Mary Law School news, "James Y. Stern of William & Mary Law School Elected Member of American Law Institute," by David F. Morrill, Aug 18, 2022 — confirms 2022 ALI election (one of ~60 new members; ALI President David F. Levi quoted), the Treasury Deputy General Counsel paragraph (verbatim incl. the ">$1 trillion" COVID-programs language and the Distinguished Service Award), W&M faculty since 2013, and education/clerkships — William & Mary Law School news, "James Y. Stern of William & Mary Law School Elected Member of American Law Institute... (original: law.wm.edu · stored capture) ↩
The American Law Institute, member profile, "James Y. Stern" — ALI member profile page (profile id 3770); ALI is the body whose Restatement (Fourth) of the Law of Property he serves as Associate Reporter — The American Law Institute, member profile, "James Y. Stern" — ALI member profile page profile id 3770; ALI is the bo... (original: ali.org · stored capture) (note: page renders via JavaScript; ALI membership and the property-Restatement role are independently confirmed by ⁴ and ¹). ↩
The Federalist Society, contributor page, "Prof. James Y. Stern" — The Federalist Society, contributor page, "Prof. James Y. Stern" — (original: fedsoc.org · stored capture) ↩