It is in times of crisis that the IMF makes, or rather, spends its money. Today’s global economic meltdown has seen the fund spring into action on a number of fronts. “It’s clear that the rhythm of the work has quickened,” Hagan says. “But this is what we do, this is what we feel we have a particular expertise in doing. We are trained to basically be the fire department and to respond quickly. You can imagine that we do contingency planning when we see potential [crises] brewing, therefore we are in a position to, not necessarily hit the ground running, but we’re not completely flat-footed.”

The team that he relies on to help stabilize economies is even more diverse than Hagan himself. “We have 185 members and we have staff from almost all of those members. The profile of lawyers in our department are people who generally have had experience either in private practice or in the public sector in international law. Because of the fact that we work on financial matters we are interested in lawyers who have a financial background.”

One of the upsides of having a group as diverse as the IMF legal team is the interaction of lawyers with different backgrounds that provide an interesting problem-solving mix. “One of the most fascinating things about my job is working with a team of lawyers from both [common] and civil law traditions. They have different ways of addressing crises and I enjoy that interaction.”

Hagan also has experience with common and civil law traditions. He did his JD at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., his undergrad was at King’s College in London, before moving on to the London School of Economics where he did his master’s in international economic policy. While the background is great, the experience of having been on teams going into struggling countries to try and rehabilitate failing financial systems, is even more important.

“These countries are not necessarily interested in the views of me or my colleagues, but what the experiences have been with other countries. What we can tell them as to what other countries have done, common pitfalls, every country has differences but at the same time there are things to be learned . . . there [are] similarities in all things, it is the best practices and experience we have helping other countries that provides some value.”

It is still a legal department, and even though the work is unique, there are, as Hagan says, “similarities in all things.” This means the team at the IMF works on processes, writing contracts, language, advice, and all of the other issues a legal department would have. And consistency is the goal with the IMF team as it is with all of the best legal departments. “It is really important for an institution like the IMF to be, and to be perceived to be, as operating within a coherent legal framework, where there is a consistency in decisions, where there is transparency and accountability — all of those are principals that we take very seriously and it occupies a significant part of my work.

And well it should, the IMF works with the very financial systems that hold countries together. It has to ensure that countries can repay loans without becoming destabilized. “Because IMF loans come with conditions,” Hagan says, “conditions that come with economic adjustment, it is natural that countries try to find their financing from other sources first.

“Often when they come to us . . . they are in relatively desperate straights. You can image the adjustment programs needed, the economic triage, so to speak, can be more painful. But we are obviously more cognizant of the need to, on the one hand, have an adjustment program that addresses these problems, but at the same time, to minimize the social costs.”

Today for Hagan a good social balance is more important. As a team member, he would be gone for weeks at a time to foreign locales, but now most days are spent in Washington, D.C., heading the team and looking for the next hot spot. As the head of the legal department, the father of three gets to spend more time at home and that suits him just fine.