International law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel has added three crypto-native lawyers to its growing digital assets and emerging technology practice, in hopes it will become a one-stop shop for cryptocurrency companies looking for legal and regulatory advice.
Lewis Cohen, the co-founder of crypto-focused firm DLx Law, will join the firm as a partner and co-chair the expanded practice – which has been renamed CahillNXT – alongside former Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutor Samson “Sam” Enzer. Two other lawyers from DLx Law – Delaware-based Gregory Strong and New York-based Sarah Chen – will join Cohen as partners in Cahill’s newly expanded practice.
One of Wall Street’s go-to law firms, Cahill’s continued expansion into the crypto sphere is significant, indicating a growing need for crypto legal advice among traditional finance companies.
“When I was a kid, the [Chicago] Bulls were the leading team in the NBA,” Enzer said, “That’s what this is – this is the crypto legal Dream Team.”
Enzer, a former senior member of the SDNY’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, joined Cahill in November 2021 and subsequently established the firm’s digital assets practice. The practice has a number of high profile clients, including notorious Bitfinex launderer Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, and major crypto companies like Coinbase.
But Enzer said that his expertise is in dispute resolution, including litigation and handling government enforcement actions – but when he needed expert advice on regulatory issues, he found himself regularly turning to Cohen and his team for help.
“We worked together for years,” Enzer said. “With the explosive demand for our services, and the burgeoning demand for the specific advice that Lewis [Cohen] and his team offer, we thought it made sense to combine.”
That combination, Enzer and Cohen hope, will make seeking comprehensive crypto legal advice easier for current and future clients.
“One of the big frustrations for clients is that they don’t really have a one-stop shop that they can go to to find crypto-native lawyers who speak the language, understand the technology,” Enzer said. “What you have is a tax crypto expert here, a crypto litigator there, a securities crypto expert at this place – it makes it very difficult for clients and more expensive, frankly, because they end up having to retain multiple law firms to get what they need.”
In addition to making things easier on their clients, Cohen and Enzer both stressed the value that having more crypto-native lawyers on Cahill’s staff will bring.
“We just see far too many lawyers struggle with what is a multi-sig, what is a roll-up, how does a bridge work? All of these things that, if you’re going to give legal advice, you have to understand,” Cohen said. “Part of our mission here is educational. We very much believe in the open source blockchain ethos and we really want to bring that DNA into our practice.”
Enzer said that a non-lawyer computer programmer from DLx Law will also join CahillNXT as a consultant, which he said will help Cahill and its clients “bridge the gap between computer code and the law.”
“Many big firms who dabble in this space do not speak the language, do not understand the tech, and therefore miss the opportunities to make the best arguments for their clients,” Enzer said. “If you don’t understand that, then you can’t really help clients navigate the maze of regulations”
Cohen has been a prominent member of the crypto legal community for years. In 2022, Cohen, Strong and Chen contributed to a paper arguing why cryptocurrencies are not securities.
DLx Law will continue to operate after Cohen, Strong and Chen’s departure and, according to a Tuesday press release, “continues to zealously serve its existing clients and is welcoming new clients.”
Co-founder Angela Angelovska-Wilson has been named Managing Partner of the firm.
“I absolutely support [her] and am excited to see all that DLX can continue to do in its current format,” Cohen told CoinDesk.
