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A&O Shearman

A&O Shearman

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United States • Finance

3

Fintech

The group at A&O Shearman is well-placed to assist with a broad array of fintech cases. San Francisco’s Alex Touma heads the team, with a notable focus on tech and payments-related transactions, from the development and integration of NFTs, to the integration of financial and Web3 services. Susan Gault-Brown co-heads the team, and has expertise in InvestTech and emerging financial services products, from blockchain-enabled tokenization, to AI. Adam Chernichaw departed in March 2025, and Todd Beauchamp and Charles Weinstein in May 2025. Dario De Martino departed the team in June 2026.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Very in-depth knowledge of the world of crypto and utter responsiveness, which is critical for crypto, where things move considerably faster than in the traditional finance world. The ability to explain the disparate rules and regulations around specific topics in crypto in a very coherent manner is standout.'

  • 'The team and Dario De Martino in particular, have their finger on the pulse of the explosion of developments and invariably know what will transpire next with accuracy that is at times almost unnerving! The team acts on all projects with the same rigour as they do blockbuster deals.’

  • ‘Dario De Martino has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the sector and an ability to explain the most complex and disparate regulations in a manner that everyone can understand.'

  • ‘The team stands out for its exceptional expertise in technology transactions, underpinned by deep industry knowledge and a client-centered approach. What truly sets this practice apart is its practical, business-friendly style - advice is always tailored to the realities of in-house legal teams, making our lives simpler, and more straightforward.'

  • ‘Alex Touma is an excellent lawyer and partner to our internal legal teams. He has a rare combination of deep, technical legal expertise and real-world business experience. His provides informed and practical advice and can be trusted to run transactions for us end-to-end with minimal input needed. This allows us to think of him as an extension of our in-house team and an invaluable partner.'

  • ‘The individuals I work with at A&O Shearman stand out for their depth of experience, commercial judgment, and sustained focus on the fintech and digital-assets space.'

Key clients

  • Arch Lending
  • The Hashgraph Association
  • GemX
  • ForwardX
  • Meta Platforms Inc.
  • Bitclout
  • Figure Markets Holdings
  • Bitstamp
  • KuCoin
  • Binance
  • Blockfi
  • Paxful

Work highlights

Represented Meta and its affiliates Instagram and WhatsApp on a variety of fintech matters, including serving as outside counsel for commercial transactions with payment card networks and fintech ecosystem partners and service providers (e.g., payment processors) to support Meta and its affiliates payment processing products and services.
Represented the project team of BitClout, also known as DeSo, an open-source cryptocurrency project and social media platform, in connection with corporate, securities (Howey test and decentralization analysis), IP (right of publicity analysis), and other regulatory matters relating to BitClout’s crypto platform and DeSo.
Structured and successfully completed the registration process with the SEC of a face-amount certificate company, Figure Certificate Company, that issues transferable, debt-security, yield-bearing stablecoins on several blockchains, including the Provenance blockchain.
Practice head

Susan Gault-Brown; Alex Touma

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