The group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is noted for its ‘absolutely best-in-class ability to combine regulatory expertise with commercial pragmatism’. The team is well-placed to assist its clients with complex regulatory issues in the digital assets space relating to banking, payments, and securities; strategic tokenization-related matters; and transactional matters relating to financial assets and structures. The team is headed up from New York by ’go-to’ practitioner Brandon Hammer, whose focus areas include advising on creditors’ rights, financial regulatory issues, and market infrastructure issues. Alongside Hammer at the helm is banking regulatory specialist Hugh Conroy, who also works from New York, and Washington DC-based Matthew Solomon, whose areas of specialism are litigation, enforcement and white-collar criminal defense. Derek Bush, also in DC, is an expert in advising on fintech regulatory issues.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Cleary is our go-to; they are knowledgeable in their areas of legal practice while still being very business-minded.'
- 'They've continually delivered for us in difficult circumstances and under tight deadlines.'
- 'Brandon Hammer stands out as our go-to partner, and his team of associates including Alec Mitchell and Travis Arbon are excellent as well. They understand our business and we trust their advice. They're extremely responsive and always deliver when they say they will.'
- 'Absolutely best-in-class ability to combine regulatory expertise with commercial pragmatism and follow-through.'
- 'Brandon Hammer and Alec Mitchell are noteworthy.'
- 'Cleary has leading experts in all key areas. The firm is very collaborative, helping to bring broad and coordinated legal advice to its clients.'
Key clients
- Goldman Sachs
- Coinbase Global, Inc.
- Canyon Capital Advisors
- Paxos Trust Company (formerly itBit)
- Custodia Bank (formerly Avanti Financial Group)
- GMO-Z.com Trust Company, Inc.
- Genesis Global
- DTCC
- Cantor Fitzgerald
- Nasdaq
- Anchorage Digital
- FalconX
Work highlights
Advising Coinbase on a wide range of issues, including advocacy before the Senate Banking Committee, the SEC, the US banking agencies, and non-US regulators; the full suite of US and non-US regulatory issues; bankruptcy remoteness and commercial law matters; digital asset financing and structuring; and litigation.
Developing and documenting a $2 billion Bitcoin financing business.
Advising the world’s largest central security depository with over $100 trillion in assets under custody, on developing their digital assets and tokenization offerings.
Lawyers
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Practice head
Brandon Hammer; Hugh Conroy; Matthew Solomon
Other key lawyers
Alec Mitchell; Travis Arbon; Derek Bush; David Lopez; Michael Sanders