Regulation Panel
Brian Klein
Brian Klein is partner at the Los Angeles-based boutique litigation firm Baker Marquart LLP. There, his practice focuses on high-stakes criminal and regulatory defense and civil litigation matters in state and federal court. He has extensive experience representing clients involved with Bitcoin, including many prominent early adopters and well-known start-ups. He formerly volunteered as the outside general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation. He has spoken about Bitcoin around the world at, among other places, global law firms, major payments and technology companies, and conferences for Bitcoin industry members and legal professionals. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles from 2007-2012 and teaches a federal criminal practice seminar at USC’s law school.
Marco Santori
Marco Santori is a counsel in the law firm’s Intellectual Property practice and is located in the New York office.
Recently described by an American Banker reporter as “the dean of digital currency lawyers,” Marco is a recognized authority in the law of digital currencies and emerging payments. He counsels exchanges, payment processors, institutional miners, and other companies making new and exciting uses of distributed ledger technology, including so-called “Bitcoin 2.0″ implementations. As Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s Regulatory Affairs Committee, his knowledge of the latest industry trends develops in near-real-time. He advises his clients on regulatory matters, including the compliance with and avoidance of money services and securities regulations. The winner of the first annual Blockchain Award for Bitcoin Legal Expert, Marco is fluent in the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Patriot Act’s application to digital currency businesses, including Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulation. Marco works closely with his clients to structure their business plans to comply with these regulations, and whenever possible avoid them entirely.
Marco’s technology transactions practice focuses on early-stage companies in the high-technology sector, including web, e-commerce, financial technology (FinTech), and the emerging digital currency space. For these businesses, Marco offers comprehensive, full-service business counsel. Marco assists his clients in structuring complex international technology transactions – often in heavily regulated industries.
He is well-versed in the corporate requirements of early-stage businesses, including seed, angel and venture-backed fundraising.
Marco’s litigation practice focuses on commercial and high-technology matters. He litigates disputes arising out of intellectual property, trade secrets, defamation and securities fraud. He is well-versed in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and lectures on the topics of mediation and arbitration.
Veronica McGregor
As the head of the Hogan Lovells’ U.S. Payments Group, Veronica not only works with FinTech startups, but handles regulatory issues for mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, IPOs, and commercial transactions. Specifically, her practice focuses on payment systems, financial services, virtual and cryptocurrencies, mobile banking, mobile payments and m-commerce, prepaid/stored value systems, consumer lending, privacy, online business, anti-money laundering compliance, software and technology licensing and privacy and data security. She has represented clients in a variety of financial services-related matters, including technology companies, banks, payment system providers, wireless carriers, gaming developers, virtual property trading platforms, online and physical retailers, social networking companies, online service providers, and software application developers.
Utilizing over 15 years of bank regulatory training and her inherited entrepreneur DNA from her father, Veronica is uniquely suited to partner with clients on the front lines of product development and serve as an interpreter in situations where regulated entities, like banks, are partnering with unregulated entities, like tech startups. She advises businesses on how to navigate the patchwork of state and federal laws and regulations that they inevitably encounter as they design innovative payment systems to meet the demands of an online world. This has made her a niche practitioner – a payments specialist who utilizes her knowledge of the laws and regulations concerning moving money through cyberspace to effectively mediate and bridge the gap between the traditional banks and the rebels of the disruptive, new technology.
Veronica is very active and respected in the FinTech legal industry – she not only holds numerous leadership positions but is prolific speaker on the subject. In the past 12 months alone, she has spoken at nearly 20 conferences and seminars around the world and authored articles in various publications. After serving as a fellow, she was recently elected to the Board of Regents for the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. She serves as Chair of the Electronic Financial Services Subcommittee of the American Bar Association, and in the past served as President of the San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association and Chair of the Consumer Financial Services Committee of the California State Bar Association.
Hemmy So
Hemmy So is Senior Legal Counsel, Products, at Twitter, Inc., where she provides strategic legal and regulatory guidance to teams developing innovative products in the areas of commerce, payments, advertising and developer platform. Prior to Twitter, she served as product and regulatory counsel at PayPal, where she worked on initiatives such as PayPal Here, retail payments and offers. Hemmy has extensive legal experience in consumer finance, payments and lending.
Earlier in her career, Hemmy worked as journalist for the Los Angeles Times and Sun-Sentinel. She received her JD from NYU School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Rice University.