Quantum Miami: Crypto Legal Issues Top of Mind in 2023

Andrew “Drew” Hinkes is a partner in the Miami office of law firm K&L Gates. He is an expert in digital assets, blockchain, smart contracts, and how these technologies interact with existing laws and regulations. He advises a wide range of clients including startups and multinational businesses on issues related to securities, payment systems, money transmitter regulation, crypto assets, structuring and governance of decentralized entities and applications, non-fungible tokens, stablecoins, and other emerging technologies.

He is a member of the practice groups for Payments, Banking Regulation, and Consumer Financial Services, and is part of the subgroups for digital assets and blockchain. He was nominated as one of Coindesk’s Most Influential People in Blockchain in 2017.

Drew Hinkes is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the NYU Stern Business School and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law. He co-teaches a course on “Digital Currency, Blockchains, and the Future of the Financial Services Industry.” He is also a lecturer at Externado Universidad de Colombia in Bogota.

Since 2019, he has been involved in law reform to promote innovation in commercial law as it applies to digital assets, serving as an observer for the Uniform Law Commission/American Law Institute, the Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies Digital Assets Working Group, and multiple UNIDROIT Working Group on Digital Assets and Private Law subgroups. In 2020, he co-authored a textbook, “Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology: U.S. Law and Regulation,” which is used to teach digital assets and blockchain law by multiple law schools.

He has published multiple articles in law reviews about crypto assets and decentralized technology systems and is often invited to speak at academic symposia and industry trade conferences.

Jason Gottlieb

Jason Gottlieb is a partner at law firm Morrison Cohen in the Business Litigation Department, where he also chairs the White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement practice group. His practice focuses on enforcing regulations, litigation, and arbitration related to securities, cryptocurrency, commodities, futures and derivatives, and structured finance.

He defends companies and individuals in investigations and enforcement actions conducted by governmental or self-regulatory agencies, such as the SEC, CFTC, Department of Justice, New York Attorney General’s Office, FINRA, ICE, CME, NYMEX, Arca, state attorney generals and securities regulators among others. He is the primary author of the MoCo Cryptocurrency Litigation Tracker, and was included in the National Law Journal’s inaugural list of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Fintech Trailblazers. He often advises U.S. and foreign companies on blockchain and cryptocurrency law as it pertains to litigation and regulatory risk issues, and has been widely quoted in the media for his cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise, such as CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, the National Law Journal, The New York Law Journal, Law360, The Real Deal, Forbes, Coindesk, a one-on-one “fireside chat” with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, and many more.

Jason brings a practical, business-friendly approach to protecting his client’s economic and reputational interests in each regulatory enforcement matter, and is fully prepared to litigate when necessary, he has secured some successful outcomes such as dismissal of an SEC case in federal district court, a victory later sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States.

In his litigation practice, he regularly defends securities issuers, trading companies, cryptocurrency companies, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, real estate entities, banks, hedge funds, private equity funds, and individuals in various areas including securities, EB5 financing, real estate, structured transactions, partnership disputes, and intellectual property. He previously worked as an attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, before that he worked at a Japanese internet services company in Tokyo

Brian Forman

Brian Forman is an intellectual heavyweight of a lawyer whose practice focuses on the formation of investment funds and providing regulatory advice to alternative investment managers and investors.

He has represented a diverse group of hedge fund and private equity fund managers in the formation of their investment vehicles. His clients have used a variety of strategies including long/short equity, credit, commodities and futures, global macro, leveraged buy-out, pharmaceutical royalties, international equity, merger-arb, opportunistic and event-driven.

He has helped with fund formations in the United States, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands (BVI), and Europe, and has worked with investors in such funds from various countries including the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He also has extensive experience advising clients on regulatory compliance, negotiating trading counterparty documentation and other day-to-day matters related to operations, accounting, and investor relations.

He also has represented investors in private investment funds by reviewing and providing feedback on fund documentation and assisting in negotiations of side letters. Brian began his career at the law firms of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. After that, he joined a start-up company called HedgeMark Advisors, LLC in 2012, where he was a key player in building a managed account platform for hedge fund investors that exceeded $20 billion in assets, and the acquisition of HedgeMark by the Bank of New York Mellon in 2014.

Josh Lawler

Josh Lawler is an attorney whose primary areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions and securities law. He specializes in the legal aspects of emerging industries and technologies, including cannabis and distributed ledger technology. His M&A clients include private equity groups, public and private companies, fundless sponsors, family offices, and sellers of large assets. He frequently works across languages and international borders to execute transactions, and has experience working in over 20 countries in the past several years. Many of his clients are based outside of the United States.

He leads the firm’s Emerging Technologies Group, with a particular focus on Blockchain (distributed ledger), cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, virtual/augmented reality, cybersecurity, and other related technologies. In this role, he advises clients on securities and regulatory matters, including the issuance of tokens and digitized assets, and provides guidance on the development, licensing, commercial use, acquisition and disposition of various forms of intellectual property.

Josh brings enthusiasm and excitement to cutting-edge projects, and is known for providing practical business advice in addition to legal counsel. Many of his clients rely on him as outside general counsel. Before joining Zuber Lawler, he worked as a corporate securities and M&A attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.