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Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

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United States • Finance

3

Fintech

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP‘s offering is well-regarded for its abilities in advising on blockchain, digital assets, venture capital, and payments and lending matters. Brian Korn works from the firm’s New York office and has notable capabilities in handling fintech and emerging tech-related corporate finance transactions, while Los Angeles’ Scott Pearson provides strategic advice to fintech clients, as well as banks, investors, and emerging companies; the pair jointly oversee the group. The ’technically perfect’ Mike Katz, who works alongside Korn in New York, is ‘everything clients want in deal counsel’. The ’highly experienced’ James Williams joined the San Francisco office in February 2025, while Gianna Ravenscroft  joined the San Diego team in October of the same year.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Accolades

Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Extremely smart and savvy counsel.'

  • 'Go-to counsel on complex deals in novel industries. ’

  • ‘Mike Katz is our partner at Manatt. He is everything we want in our deal counsel: technically perfect, great commercially, and focused on the things that matter. Excellent.’

  • ‘This team has absolutely top-level experience in both the traditional finance and blockchain technology areas. This combination is very rare and has proven to be of high value to us.’

  • ‘James Williams is a highly experienced partner who has deep knowledge of both the traditional fintech and blockchain spaces, including both transactional and regulatory issues.'

  • 'James Williams is a go-to for us in providing advice in traditional fintech and blockchain. I would rank him in the absolute top-tier of attorneys at the intersection of fintech/blockchain/crypto.'

Key clients

  • Warbler Labs
  • Goldfinch
  • Centrifuge, Inc.
  • 1 Money, Inc.
  • Orangefin Ventures LLC
  • Space and Time, Inc.
  • Liquid Labs, Inc. d/b/a GTE

Work highlights

Advised Warbler Labs on the launch of Heron Finance, a tokenized investment platform bridging fintech and blockchain, and continues to guide the firm on regulatory compliance.
Advised Centrifuge on the launch of Tinlake, a first-of-its-kind decentralized financing protocol enabling businesses to tokenize real-world assets and retail investors to participate through blockchain-based tokens.
Served as lead stablecoin counsel to 1 Money, Inc., a new issuer backed by major industry players including Galaxy, Kraken, and BitGo. James oversaw securities compliance, entity structuring, inter-company agreements, and partnerships with leading exchanges, acting as global coordinating counsel.
Practice head

Brian Korn; Scott Pearson

Other key lawyers

Mike Katz; James Williams; Eric Knight; Gianna Ravenscroft