Overview
The rapid acceleration of technological development has had a direct, transformative effect on the financial services industry and has led to the creation of a burgeoning new sector: financial technology, or FinTech. Dozens of FinTech companies are launching every year, and established players are expanding their services and product lines to include payments, stored-value, and virtual- and digital-currency, innovative online credit and lending alternatives, and blockchain and distributed-ledger technology (DLT).
With fast growth, however, come a range of business and compliance considerations, including data privacy and cybersecurity, capital requirements, commercial disputes, and regulatory and law-enforcement scrutiny. McDermott’s cross-disciplinary FinTech team recognizes the opportunities in the expanding digital economy and understands the complex legal and business challenges that face industry participants.
Our core FinTech group includes highly experienced lawyers from across the Firm’s major practice areas, including corporate, finance, global privacy and cybersecurity, government and lobbying, intellectual property, litigation, technology and commercial transactions, and white-collar and securities defense. We help clients:
- Access capital via traditional lending and investment models, as well as new financing strategies such as initial coin offerings (ICOs)
- Protect and manage intellectual property rights, including patents, copyright and trademarks covering processes, products, applications and brands
- Negotiate and close major corporation transactions, joint ventures, collaborative arrangements, licensing deals and service contracts
- Ensure compliance with financial services, anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions, data protection, tax, antitrust, and other laws and regulations
- Resolve commercial disputes with investors, vendors, subcontractors and customers
- Respond to government inquiries and law-enforcement investigations
- Expand their role in the development of federal and state FinTech-related legislation and regulatory policy
Business and technical fluency is a baseline requirement in this complex new space. Our lawyers have in-depth, firsthand experience advising a broad range of FinTech businesses, including robo-advisors, high-frequency trading firms, broker-dealers, banks, private fund sponsors, technology startups and established financial-services enterprises. We offer end-to-end counsel on products and services such as:
- Cryptocurrencies and other blockchain tokens
- dApps (decentralized apps)
- Mobile payments and e-wallets
- Online lending
- Payment processing
- Reloadable, stored-value and pre-paid debit and gift cards
Our lawyers are demonstrated thought leaders, and have published numerous articles on topics such as distributed ledger technology, digital currencies, Securities and Exchange Commission findings on blockchain tokens and investment contracts, token launches and ICOs, and other emerging issues. Members of the team are also sought-after commentators for industry publications and have been featured speakers at industry events and conferences sponsored by CoinDesk, StartEngine, swissnex San Francisco, and the Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance.
