Career Update: I’m Joining the Digital Chamber to Advocate for Crypto Full Time

It’s been a while since I posted anything besides my weekly crypto legal update. So apologies if you opened your email or this blog looking for legal developments. Those may or may not continue. Still up in the air on that.

The tl;dr of this week’s update is that I am leaving Polsinelli to join the Digital Chamber as Policy Director! For most people, that is all you need to know and I look forward to working with my readers in the digital asset industry as we move digital asset policy forward in a positive direction in the coming years!

For anybody interested in how I got here and why I am making this move, read below for the longer update.

Why I’m Joining the Digital Chamber

Early 2021 seems like just yesterday, when I was buying and selling jpgs and digital racehorses with my friends. I decided to start this blog in the summer of 2021 after seeing some questionable copyright and trademark legal issues pop up in the burgeoning industry of non-fungible tokens.

At that point, I had been buying and selling crypto (PAIN at the selling part) since 2015-ish. As the son of a computer programmer who failed spectacularly at programming myself, blockchain-enabled technologies have always been fascinating to me. But at the time, “crypto law” was basically just securities law, and I envisioned myself being a soft-IP and complex commercial litigator for life. So being a crypto lawyer (whatever that means) was never my goal.

That was true even when I started this blog. I started the blog because my friends were buying NFTs, and I noticed legal issues that few people were discussing amid the typical Web3 ‘wild west’ enthusiasm. I keep a note in my office that reads “risk mitigation, not risk elimination” which I use as a guiding principle that’s especially relevant in crypto, where legal risks are often uncertain. The job of an attorney is to provide information as to potential legal risks and options so the client can be well informed in making that risk/benefit calculation. I wasn’t trying to get clients from my writing; I just wanted to provide information on legal risks I didn’t see available elsewhere.

It turned out, people liked what I was writing, and I developed a client base of crypto start-ups and entrepreneurs with legal needs that quickly exceeded what I could provide them with from the litigation boutique I was at. I learned that I loved working with startups, so in May of 2022, I made the career leap to join Polsinelli in their Tech Transactions and Data Privacy group with the goal of helping the firm grow out its already impressive Blockchain+ practice. It meant taking on more corporate work and less of the litigation I loved, but it allowed me to be more involved with my clients’ businesses and develop skills for issues I had previously referred out.

Jump forward to today, and I think I have accomplished what I set out to do at Polsinelli. I would like to say I contributed to Polsinelli’s Blockchain+ practice getting Chambers ranked the last 2 years (and hopefully maintaining or improving that rank this year).  I got to be lead drafter of various motions in the Debt Box case where we successfully obtained sanctions against the SEC and dismissal of the action against our clients.

I prepared more token warrants, IP licensing agreements, SaaS terms of use, and privacy notices than I can count where I got to work closely with builders in the industry as they proactively built out their products and services in a legally responsible manner. Things I could never do as a pure litigator who is only brought in after shit has already hit the fan.

I also got introduced to Cody, before he was CEO at the Digital Chamber. He was a subscriber to this blog, so when the Digital Chamber was considering submitting an amicus in the Hermès v. Rothschild appeal on NFT trademark issues, he asked if I would be interested in authoring it. Polsinelli supported not only taking on the work, but also allowed me (as an associate) to be the main author of the amicus and I am extremely proud of the work we did on that briefing. I don’t think there are many biglaw associates who get to sign their name at the top of a major Second Circuit appellate brief, and I was honored to be among those lucky few.

I also think I was the only associate to be the primary signatory in the recent submissions to the SEC in response to Commissioner Peirce’s requests for how the SEC could be modernized for blockchain-enabled products and services. Something which is again typically reserved for people far more senior than I am, and for which I am incredibly grateful.

However, as much as I do generally enjoy the web tracking litigation and other non-crypto work I do to fill my day in firm life where billable hour requirements need to be met, the best parts of my work day are when I get to write and advocate for crypto companies and the crypto industry writ large. Not keeping track of my entire work day in 6-minute increments for billing purposes will be an added perk, but being able to direct all my attention and work towards the crypto work I love doing is the real reason I am making this move.

Over the next few years, the SEC, CFTC, Department of the Treasury,  FTC, Congress, and countless other government agencies and branches of government at both the state and federal level will be making laws, rules, and regulations for crypto which will govern for decades. So while Polsinelli has been a phenomenal place to work, when the Digital Chamber approached me about a potential policy role in the organization, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to be a firsthand actor in helping government entities shape their digital asset policies.

I’m a heavy user of crypto and believer that blockchain-enabled technologies can in many cases be a net improvement to current systems reliant on middlemen and prone to human error and greed. The Brian Brooks quote in this blog’s image rings true. I also would like to believe I have an understanding of that technology and ability to explain it to others in the context of existing and proposed legal structures that makes me well-suited to assist the Digital Chamber in its mission to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies, and  develop an environment that fosters innovation, jobs, and investment.

I would be lying if I said leaving the practice of law and my life in St. Louis behind to move to D.C. and work in crypto policy full time isn’t a little scary. I would be crazy not to have a bit of imposter syndrome joining an all-star team like the Digital Chamber and trying to contribute to its list of already impressive accomplishments. But I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.

Closing Thoughts/Future of the Blog

Commissioner Peirce’s recent NFT speech hit home for me in many areas, but especially where she said:

As large as my imaginary NFT menagerie is, the number of people earnestly working to get crypto policy right is even greater. I am grateful for their patience, creativity, and generosity in sharing their time, talents, and insight with the Crypto Task Force. I especially appreciate the members of the crypto community who put their noses to the grindstone to serve other people—even when doing so requires them to take career, financial, legal, and reputational risk. Many people who have taken such risks are here at tonight’s dinner. You have built or are building solutions to seemingly intractable problems, you have ignored the noise so that you could think deeply about how to improve people’s lives, and you may have faced government investigations for doing so. I am sorry that over most of my tenure at the SEC I failed to convince my colleagues in government to give you a chance. I hope that you and others whom you have inspired will use this time—a time in which regulatory clarity has replaced ambiguity as government’s objective—to build good things that will enhance the safety, security, happiness, and prosperity of your family, friends, neighbors, and nation. Show the skeptics that technologies that enable us to engage permissionlessly and privately with our peers are worth preserving and celebrating. Building valuable things in this moment when government is not trying to stop you is the best way to ensure the durability of sound crypto policy.

As somebody who has grown from an IP litigator to a crypto lawyer (still no idea what that term means, but I am fairly certain I fall into that category of attorney at this point), I am insanely excited to start my new role at the Digital Chamber. I am looking forward to working with the team and its members as we shape crypto policy that will change how everyday Americans engage in internet commerce and true digital ownership permissionlessly and privately.

For anybody who made it this far, I realize this may read like a bit of a cringe LinkedIn announcement. Sorry/not sorry for that. I am not sure what I will use this blog for going forward since this new role requires a level of impartiality and advocacy for the industry as a whole that wasn’t as needed in private practice.

There is a lot of stuff still up in the air. I am planning on cleaning up the 445-page master document where I keep all my updates and releasing it so others can use it as I do to search for old legal filings or stories when there is an update. After that, no idea. But stay subscribed—or subscribe if you haven’t already—to receive updates on the future of the blog once I have that decided. Until then, you can still reach me on Twitter (X), Farcaster, or through the Digital Chamber.

As always, I am an attorney, I am not your attorney. For legal advice, you should always consult (and pay for) an attorney.