Bio

I sit at the nexus of law, technology and finance. As a lawyer at the heart of decentralized finance, my world is coming full circle—from Wall Street to Big Law to deep technology startups and now founding my own startup to build circular economies through community currencies and Universal Basic Income (UBI). In a prior life, I was a high yield research analyst at JPMorgan, before practicing securities enforcement and international capital markets at major law firms in New York and London. I enjoy being equal parts practitioner/entrepreneur and academic/educator. I have served as a blockchain advisor to New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim and as a contributing author to the United Nations Development Programme initiative “Migrant Nation.” I am a published author on digital identity in the peer-reviewed academic journal, Frontiers in Blockchain, as well as a contributing author to the book “Financial Services Revolution” (2020). I regularly speak at industry events around the world, including at the Brookings Institute, Hong Kong Fintech Week, Columbia University, Harvard Business School, and others. My academic interests in law and blockchain include the relationship between decentralization, governance and securities law regimes, the interplay between public (central bank issued) and private (company issued) currencies, local currencies and bottom-up inclusive finance, and the fundamental intersection between digital identity and digital transactions. Finally, I am deeply passionate about economic inclusion. In between Wall Street and law school, I founded a legal services non-profit in Uganda called Microjustice. Previously, I have co-founded the Young Professionals Council for TrickleUp and volunteered with Accion USA.