Leading Crypto Lawyers Lewis Rinaudo Cohen, Gregory Strong, and Sarah W. Chen Join Cahill as Partners in the Firm’s Digital Assets and Emerging Technology Practice, CahillNXT
Date: 05/15/24
NEW YORK, May 15, 2024 – Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP announced today that leading “crypto native” lawyers Lewis Rinaudo Cohen, Gregory Strong, and Sarah W. Chen have joined the firm as partners in Cahill’s globally recognized Digital Assets and Emerging Technology, or “CahillNXT” practice. The CahillNXT practice will be co-chaired by Cahill partners Samson “Sam” Enzer (who founded Cahill’s cryptocurrency and fintech practice in 2021) and Lewis Cohen. The arrival of Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong and Ms. Chen will include the opening of a Cahill office in Delaware led by Mr. Strong, a former Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice, given the state’s strategic importance to clients in the digital assets sector and across Cahill’s financial services-focused practices.
For over a century, Cahill has been recognized for innovation and excellence in helping traditional financial institutions resolve their thorniest legal and business challenges. Through its CahillNXT practice, the firm is now at the forefront of guiding the next generation of entrepreneurs and businesses in the burgeoning digital assets sector (sometimes known as “Web3”) through the maze of opportunities and risks on the cutting edge of the intersection of digital assets, emerging technology, and finance. The combined practice will provide corporate governance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, and litigation advice, from start-up formation, product structuring, fundraising, licensing, intellectual property, dealmaking and due diligence, to handling clients’ internal investigations, regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, and bet-the-company civil and criminal litigation.
Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong, and Ms. Chen are true crypto natives, having long focused their practice on the adoption and use of blockchain technology and tokenization across a wide range of market-leading projects, along the way handling general corporate matters, venture financing, securities law compliance, and financial regulatory matters. Their clients have included some of the world’s leading blockchain development companies, foundations, digital asset gaming platforms, trading firms, digital wallet-service providers, blockchain infrastructure providers, venture capital firms, and traditional financial institutions.
“Lewis is a trailblazer and thought leader, having co-founded one of the very first law firms focusing on clients engaging with the digital asset space. Nearly six years ago, Lewis recognized the potential for this community to create new and groundbreaking commercial and economic models. Lewis and his colleagues built a leading Web3-focused legal brand through a singular focus on the needs of clients working in the blockchain space, while remaining true to the sector’s open-source and community-oriented ethos,” said Sam Enzer, Co-Chair of the CahillNXT practice. “By joining forces as CahillNXT, our combined team has the capacity to handle the most significant and complex legal and business challenges that the industry faces, from helping our clients structure, develop, and launch projects that involve the use of crypto assets, to defending them in civil and criminal litigation or regulatory enforcement matters.”
“In three short years, Cahill’s practice in this space has grown from nascent to top-tier,” said Herb Washer, Chair of Cahill's Executive Committee. “Last year, we unveiled a long-term plan to further diversify and grow Cahill, focusing on our most successful and profitable practices. With the addition of this remarkable team, our plan is right on schedule, reinforcing Cahill as the premier destination for both traditional financial institutions and emerging companies across the ever-evolving digital assets sector.”
“For more than a century, Cahill has been a leader in providing counsel to the financial services industry. Then, in the blink of an eye, Sam and Cahill built a remarkable and industry-leading digital asset practice,” said Lewis Cohen, Co-Chair of the CahillNXT practice. “My colleagues and I couldn’t be happier to join this team launched by Sam, who successfully led some of the government’s earliest, groundbreaking cases in this field as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.”
Prior to joining Cahill in 2021, Mr. Enzer served for eight years as a federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), where he rose to become a senior member of the SDNY Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and spearheaded multiple groundbreaking cryptocurrency enforcement matters. He has been described as “one of the leading cryptocurrency enforcement attorneys to come out of government service in recent years” by The National Law Journal and as the “SDNY Crypto Ace” by Law360.
Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong and Ms. Chen were authors of a first-of-its-kind 2022 study of crypto assets analyzing why secondary market crypto asset transactions are not “securities” subject to the Securities Exchange Commission’s enforcement jurisdiction. This seminal 180-page “open source” work, made available for free to market participants, regulators and others in the industry, summarizes all 266 appellate cases to have applied the Supreme Court’s “Howey test” since 1946 and guides many industry players as they navigate the application of U.S. securities laws and rules to new, developing asset classes. This three-partner team joining Cahill will be augmented by a highly experienced coder and developer able to help clients bridge the gap between code and law.
Lewis Rinaudo Cohen
Lewis Rinaudo Cohen is the Co-Chair of the CahillNXT practice and focuses on the use of blockchain, crypto assets and tokenization across all aspects of the capital markets and all areas of economic activity. He is one of just seven lawyers ranked in the top tier (Band 1) for U.S. blockchain-related work by the legal ranking service Chambers & Partners.
Mr. Cohen’s career-long experience has spanned the full-spectrum of matters from large-scale traditional initial public equity and debt offerings and a wide range of securitization and other structured financing transactions to advising on legal issues relating to the launch of new blockchain-based decentralized projects. Over his career, he has represented issuers, underwriters, banks, and others on a wide range of traditional capital market transactions.
Prior to co-founding a leading law firm focused on blockchain technology, Mr. Cohen was a partner in the New York office of two AmLaw Global 25 firms.
Mr. Cohen received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and his B.A. from Clark University.
Gregory Strong
Gregory Strong provides strategic regulatory and litigation advice to clients engaging with blockchain and crypto assets with a focus on securities, commodities, and consumer protection laws and regulations. Mr. Strong has successfully represented clients before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, state securities regulators and various other regulators.
Mr. Strong has significant experience successfully engaging with regulators on behalf of clients in the blockchain space with novel legal issues. He was a key member of the team that obtained one of the few no-action letters issued by the SEC with respect to the non-security status of a crypto asset. He was also a key member of the team that represented the first successful applicant for a Special Purpose Depository Institution charter before the Wyoming Division of Banking.
Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Strong served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice from 2003 to early 2018. He was appointed as the Director of the Investor Protection Unit from 2015 to 2018 and was responsible for administering and enforcing the Delaware Securities Act. He was also an active member of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).
Mr. Strong received his J.D./M.B.A. from Temple University and his B.S. from Lehigh University.
Sarah W. Chen
Sarah W. Chen advises clients on all matters in the space of digital assets and emerging technology, including general corporate, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments, securities, and financial regulatory matters. Ms. Chen represents a variety of clients in the digital asset space that range from blockchain development companies, foundation entities, digital asset marketplaces, tokenization platforms, to venture capital firms, fintech companies and traditional financial institutions. She provides legal advice on securities, commodities and other laws and regulations that may apply to activities involving digital assets and the use of blockchain technology.
Previously, Ms. Chen was a member of the M&A group at an international law firm headquartered in New York City and advised public companies and private equity firms on strategic corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, carve-outs, joint ventures, restructurings, minority investments and corporate governance matters.
Ms. Chen received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from New York University, magna cum laude.
About Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
Cahill is among the most successful law firms in the world. With a history of legal innovation dating back to the firm's founding in 1919, Cahill is trusted by market-leading financial institutions, companies and their boards to manage significant corporate transactions, litigation and regulatory matters. Based in New York, Cahill also has offices in London and Washington, D.C.