Neel Maitra joins Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Neel Maitra joins Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

He will be a member of the law firm's securities regulatory and complex transactions group

Neil Maitra, the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attorney, active in the crypto markets, has joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Washington, DC.

At the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, Maitra specialized in fintech and cryptocurrency issues.

Maitra was excited about joining the firm for its ability to deliver legal services to the bold market creators in the fintech sector. He stated, "I look forward to the opportunity to leverage my experience to help the firm's clients define the new fintech frontier."

Speaking about Maitra, Doug Clark, the Managing Partner at Wilson Sonsini, said, "He understands the intricacies of applicable securities laws, regulatory priorities, and enforcement efforts, and the extent to which those can be advantageous or disadvantageous to the fintech clients."

Maitra joined the SEC at a pivotal time in 2016 and emerged as one of the experts on a diverse range of issues, including initial coin offerings (ICOs), broker-dealer regulation of cryptocurrency companies, and online trading platforms.

He was also involved with matters concerning the 1940 Investment Companies Act, digital asset trading platforms (including alternative trading systems, and issues related to digital assets and Decentralized Finance).

He worked on proposals to create cryptocurrency-based, exchange-traded products, including the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust; the first proposal to create a national securities exchange for digitally enhanced securities, and various efforts to address the custody of digital securities.

Maitra was also a delegate to the SEC's FinHub, the entity that was central to defining the regulatory treatment of digital assets and blockchain-related products.

Before joining SEC, Maitra was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in Washington, D.C. He started his career in law at Covington & Burling after earning his JD, a graduate-level degree in law from Columbia Law School.