Law of Code

The goal of this podcast is to help DAOs and their members understand the potential legal risks that accompany their membership. This is the inaugural episode of the DAO Research Monthly series, created by Jacob Robinson, Kyle Smith and Kyler Wandler. This episode reviews the legal liability of members associated with DAOs. What do we mean when we say liability? What could a token holder or vote b...

Andrew Gordon (@ accounting ) is a crypto tax attorney and CPA based in Chicago. He and his firm, Gordon Law Group (@ gordonlawltd ), have focused on crypto tax since 2014; They've since prepared hundreds of crypto tax returns for retail investors, whales, celebrity clients, and NFT startups. Andrew also practices corporate law with a focus on blockchain, affiliate marketing, esports, and tech...

Rodrigo Seira (@ RSSH273 ) is Crypto Counsel at Paradigm. Prior to joining Paradigm, he was outside counsel to crypto investors and entrepreneurs at Cooley LLP. Prior to that, Rodrigo was a founding member of DLX Law, a blockchain and crypto focused boutique. Rodrigo earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Middlebury College. Rodrigo authored a mat...

Jason Schwartz (@ CryptoTaxGuyETH ) is a tax partner and co-heads Fried Frank's Digital Assets and Blockchain Practice. He specializes in tax issues relating to financial products, securitizations, funds, treaties, lending, and digital assets. Jason has been recognized as an "Up and Coming" lawyer in Tax by Chambers USA and as a "Next Generation Partner" by Legal 500 US in Tax: Financial Products...

A panel of judges heard oral arguments in the Grayscale Investments suit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 7.  This podcast dives into the history of GBTC, the SEC's reasoning for rejecting the spot-bitcoin ETF, Grayscale's argument against the SEC and an overview of what we heard during the oral arguments on March 7. We also cover what thought leaders in the...

Nelson Rosario (@ NelsonMRosario ) is an attorney in Chicago, IL, USA, and the founder of Rosario Tech Law whose interests comprise law, innovation, cryptocurrencies and related blockchain based technologies. Nelson teaches a law school class “Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the Law,” at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and has been a visiting professor at IE Law School based in Madrid, Spain. Show hi...

Justin Daniels is a cybersecurity SME and M&A attorney at Baker Donelson, where he advises corporate clients on the deployment and scaling of technology that ranges from SaaS, Fintech and data centers to autonomous vehicles, drones and cryptocurrency. Justin has co-authored a book ( Data Reimagined: Building Trust One Byte at a Time ) designed to show businesses how to leverage privacy an...

Three of the brightest minds in crypto law discuss LexPunK highlights from 2022, touch on disclosures regimes, sufficient decentralization, compare crypto native remedies to the current legal system, and much more.   Gabriel Shapiro (@lex_node) is General Counsel at Delphi Labs. Sarah Brennan (@SH_Brennan) is General Counsel for both Delphi Research and Delphi Ventures. Marc Goldich (@ma...

Michael Selig (@ MikeSeligEsq ) is counsel in the Asset Management Department of the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and part of the firm’s crypto practice. Michael’s practice centers on the application of financial regulation to crypto and web3 technology networks and products, including blockchains and crypto assets. Michael previously worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in...

Marco Ciarlariello is a member of the Business Law Group and serves as the Chair of the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Group at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. Marco is a commercial lawyer with a practice that focuses on intellectual property, information technology and data privacy in the digital asset space. Marco works extensively with a range of clients in the digital asset space, includin...

Jason Gottlieb (@ ohaiom ) is a Partner at Morrison Cohen LLP, where he chairs the Digital Assets group and the White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement practice group. Jason is the principal author of the MoCo Cryptocurrency Litigation Tracker and was named to the National Law Journal‘s inaugural list of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Fintech Trailblazers.  Show highlights: [1:50] Refco [6:40...

Greg Xethalis (@ xethalis ) is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Multicoin Capital. He is on the board at the Association for Digital Asset Markets & Fordham Law Alumni Association. Greg also is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law, where he co-taught Blockchain and FinTech Law and Policy.  This episode offers a deep dive into the GBTC, Bitcoin-backed ETPs and the Investmen...

Aaron Wright (@ awrigh01 ) is the CEO and co-founder of @TributeLabsXYZ , as well as @TheLAOOfficial , @flamingoDAO , & many more. He’s a Professor at Cardozo Law, authored a book relating to the laws surrounding blockchain technology: Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code , and wrote many great articles . Before this, Aaron was a successful entrepreneur, having sold his first company to Wi...

Securities regulators in the United States have repeatedly asserted that most fungible blockchain-based crypto assets are clearly securities under current law. This assertion is incorrect. An exhaustive review of the relevant appellate case law and the related legal scholarship demonstrates that this position is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s definition of the term “investment contract” as...

Andrew "Drew" Hinkes (@ propelforward ) is a partner in K&L Gates Miami office and the Co-Chair of its Global crypto practice. Drew is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law, where he co-teaches "Digital Currency, Blockchains, and the Future of the Financial Services Industry.” Since 2019, Drew has been an advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and...

Bill Hughes (@ BillHughesDC ) is senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters at ConsenSys Software, which is behind MetaMask, Infura, and various other software supporting the programmable blockchain ecosystem. Bill focuses on the diverse and ever evolving crypto global regulatory landscape, and the legal and public policy issues with which ConsenSys and the broader crypto ecosystem i...

The DAO Research Collective (@ DAOResearchCo ) is a non-profit accelerating DAO functionality by procuring and open-sourcing research foundational to effective DAO operation. Their DAO Library aggregates and curates DAO research on a single platform. It is a public good that will always be accessible to the community at no cost.  Connor Spelliscy (@ c_spelliscy ) is the Founder and Execu...

Dane Lund (@ lund_dane ) is Head DAO Architect at Alliance , the leading Web3 accelerator and founder community. He started his career as an attorney at Wilkie Farr and pivoted into finance as investment banker and investor.  Show highlights [3:19] Defining DAOs [4:45] Alliance DAO [10:00] How projects get involved with Alliance [11:30] Dane's DAO Lecture @ Cornell [41:00] Law in the Metavers...

Carol Van Cleef (@ Carol_VanCleef ) is an internationally recognized authority and pioneer in legal issues involving cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. As chair of Bradley’s Blockchain and Digital Assets practice, Carol leads the firm’s virtual currencies and blockchain work to help clients navigate the complex, dynamic and rapidly evolving issues in these areas. Carol is also an anti-mon...

Paul Grewal (@iampaulgrewal) is the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, where he is responsible for Coinbase’s legal, compliance, global intelligence, risk management and government relations groups. Before joining Coinbase, Paul was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook.   Show highlights :  [1:40] Paul's role as Chief Legal Officer @ Coinbase  [6:30] Introduction to crypto as a...

Rebecca Rettig (@ RebeccaRettig1 ) is the General Counsel of the Aave Companies (@ AaveAave ). Rebecca began her legal career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, litigating complex commercial disputes; prior to joining the Aave Companies, Rebecca was a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in the financial services group, representing blockchain and crypto clients.  In this...

Have you ever wondered about the history of the CFTC, SEC, or other regulatory agencies? In this episode, Marisa Coppel walks me through each America regulatory agency that impacts crypto - who they are, why they were created and what role they play in the crypto ecosystem. Marisa Tashman Coppel (@ mtcoppel ) is policy counsel at the Blockchain Association, where she helps develop and advocate for...

This episode outlines Pre-DAO and Post-DAO Legal Risk Assessment, an article written by Kevin Chen (@anothrkevinchen) in collaboration with the DAO Research Collective (@DAOResearchCo). Kevin is an attorney at Homiak Law LLC based in Denver, Colorado. He advises cryptoasset and blockchain technology companies on a wide variety of matters such as formation of new startup companies, venture financin...

The 'Can’t Be Evil' licenses are a set of six NFT licenses developed by lawyers and operators in web 3 - each license grants “different sets of rights with different degrees of permissiveness”. The licenses have been deployed on Arweave (a decentralized storage, similar to IPFS) and can be directly linked on-chain by smart contracts. The licenses are available on the a16z website ( document contai...

Amber D. Scott (@ OutlierCanada ) specializes in Canadian anti-money laundering (AML), counter terrorist financing (CTF), privacy, and regulatory compliance. In addition to being a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) Amber is also a Certified Privacy Professional (CIPP). In 2013, she founded Outlier Solutions Inc. to provide anti-money laundering (AML) solutions to Canadian reporting...