Areas of Focus
We advise on funding, compliance, corporate governance, and technological advancements to support startup and investor objectives—including owning and monetizing innovation, tactical product launches, strategic M&A, and prevailing in all types of litigation.
- Digital assets, Web3 technologies, payment systems, market infrastructure, and trading practices
- Regulatory and legal compliance in light of new technologies and rapidly changing laws and industry protocols
- Novel transaction structures
- Digital assets, data management, outsourcing, and payment regulations
- High-stakes dispute resolution and litigation, including bet-the-company matters
Our lawyers counsel startups and established fintechs on BaaS offerings and bank/fintech partnerships—from product launch to securitizations and sales. We also represent clients before federal banking agencies and consumer financial services regulators and their state counterparts in supervisory and enforcement matters.
- Developing, licensing, and launching new products
- Establishing compliance management systems
- Responding to adverse examination findings
- Resolving confidential regulatory investigations
- Litigating complex proceedings against regulators
- Conducting regulatory due diligence in transactional matters
Our team crafts legal solutions for decentralized finance arrangements, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), tokenization, and blockchain banking and transactions. We proactively adapt to shifting cryptocurrency trends and transparent asset movement, focusing on emerging market opportunities.
- Mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, and insolvency events
- Digital assets, Web3, cryptocurrencies, crypto derivatives, and NFTs
- Structured products, market infrastructure solutions, and blockchain technologies
- Regulatory solutions, investigations, and enforcement proceedings
- Dispute resolution and complex litigation
We are an integral partner to companies at all stages of development and a trusted adviser to financial and strategic investors in the insurtech space. We consistently address regulatory challenges in this burgeoning market—offering legal advice underpinned by cutting-edge technologies to clients throughout the value chain.
- Venture capital and growth equity funding to exit events
- Regulatory compliance for digital transformation
- Strategic collaborations and commercial arrangements with insurers, reinsurers, and corporate venture capital stakeholders
- Data privacy and cybersecurity
- Risk mitigation and advocacy
Our team is well versed in the commercial and regulatory issues impacting the growing proptech sector, and have represented our clients in novel proptech matters, including a first-ever transaction forming the foundation for a new asset class. We help enhance efficiency and profits and leverage digital tools across diverse real estate and related assets and transactions—from traditional properties to specialized facilities.
- Commercial contracts with IT vendors and data center owners focused on confidentiality, data privacy, and licensing of proptech innovations
- Helping establish the home equity investment (HEI) securitization asset class, including representation of leading issuers of HEI securitization platforms and as underwriters’/initial purchasers’ counsel for HEI capital markets ABS programs
- Regulatory compliance across proptech growth, including personal data protection, shared data ownership, and drone use in construction projects
- IP ownership, IT infrastructure, cyber incident response and operational resilience, and data management within the proptech sector
- Transaction management, acceleration, incubation, and startups
- M&A, security management, and digital transformation including blockchain, AI, and robotics
Morgan Lewis has a longstanding history representing some of the world’s leading alternative lenders/non-bank lenders—and their related investment and financing parties—in the fintech sector. We’ve also been involved in the financing and securitization of residential HEIs from the beginning, representing the first participants in this asset class in novel transactions. We advise fintech platforms, financial institutions, investors, and other market participants.
- Securitization and other financing and monetization of unsecured consumer loans and commercial loans
- Capital markets transactions, including forward-flow arrangements, warehouse financing facilities, repo transactions, and securitization facilities and issuance platforms
- Asset-based lending and bridge facilities for interim financing of receivables and other assets
- Structuring and establishment of acquisition finance facilities for various types of financial assets
- Innovative and disruptive technologies such as loan trading platforms, peer-lending platforms, payment systems, ride-sharing platforms, and other companies involved in marketplace lending
DeFi's revolutionary potential brings with it unique legal challenges. Our team believes in bridging the gap between blockchain technology and traditional finance law by providing legal solutions that can simultaneously bolster innovation and regulatory compliance.
- DeFi regulatory compliance and risk management
- Smart contract development
- Strategic token offering and securities law solutions
- Legal frameworks for cross-border DeFi operations
- IP protection for DeFi innovation
