Anderson Kill announces that Preston Byrne, a corporate attorney with extensive experience working with cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, has joined the firm's Washington D.C. office as a partner. Preston will work in the firm's Technology, Media and Distributed Systems group as well as in its Corporate and Commercial Litigation Group. He comes to Anderson Kill from a boutique law firm in Connecticut, where he was also a partner.
Preston advises a broad range of companies on complex cross-border legal issues arising from the use of cutting-edge technologies. His experience includes advising cryptocurrency miners, decentralized protocol developers, hedge funds and other institutional investors, money services businesses, custom software development shops, and social networks, in the United States and overseas, on a broad range of matters including general corporate work, intellectual property and licensing, commercial litigation, and government relations and investigations.
Preston previously served as the Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel of Monax Industries, an early enterprise blockchain startup, developer of the first “permissioned” blockchain design and present maintainer of the Hyperledger Burrow EVM blockchain client. There he advised on a full range of corporate legal issues including formation and capital raising, IP and licensing, and software services contracts. During his tenure he and his team designed blockchain prototypes for a number of leading global companies including tier 1 global banks and the R3 interbank technology consortium.
Prior to Monax, Preston was an associate with a Global 100 law firm’s London office, where he worked on securitization and debt finance matters for European banks and public sector agencies.
Preston is a well-known thought leader in the blockchain space, ranking 57th in the 2020 CoinTelegraph Top 100 and 60th on the Hive.One All Crypto league table. He is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences and events on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, including recent engagements at Consensus 2019, Crypto Springs 2019, the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium 2019, and Liberty Forum 2020.
“Preston was in at the birth of operational blockchain technology and is a leader in developing a legal framework in which businesses deploying the technology can develop,” said Robert M. Horkovich, Anderson Kill’s managing shareholder. “We are delighted to welcome him to Anderson Kill.”
“Preston has built an impressive roster of clients among businesses successfully deploying blockchain and other innovative technologies,” said Rhonda D. Orin, managing partner of Anderson Kill’s Washington, D.C. office. “We are excited to have him join Stephen Palley and Bob Cornish to help build out our practice in this emerging and promising space.”
Preston is admitted to practice in England and Wales, New York, and Connecticut. He holds an LL.M. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, an LL.B. from the College of Law of England and Wales and an M.A. (Hons) in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.