Long Story Short: I’ve started Axell Law to bring a practical legal perspective to the payments and FinTech industry, and this is my first blog posting (so, please be gentle!).
Inspired by the disruption I’ve seen FinTechs deliver to the banking industry’s doorstep, I’m taking a swing at disrupting the legal industry (in some small way) – boot-strapping a nimble solo law firm geared to approaching FinTech legal issues from a place of operational reality, backed by the expertise gained from spending 15 years of building FinTech/payments products in a foggy (at best) legal environment. Even just a little bit intrigued? Let’s talk.
Long Story: Disruption. Perhaps it’s a worn-out term in today’s innovation landscape, but let’s face it. Everything is being disrupted right now. Banking. Transportation. Retailing. Media. Even currencies (but let’s not get started on those pesky supply chain disruptions….).
But, what industry has been spared so far? Law firms.
Specifically, big law firms. The law firms that I’ve called all my career for help with thorny payments-related legal questions. What have I experienced?
Probably the same thing you’ve experienced – missed deadlines, advice rooted in zero operational reality (or even worse, learning something new on your dime….or more likely…on your thousands of dollars), and generally being frustratingly abstract when you and your business need concrete, decisive answers.
I’ve founded Axell Law as a response to my experiences with big law firms. I’ve worked for 15 years as an in-house attorney focused on launching payments products with banks, merchants and FinTechs, and know all too well the pressures of trying to execute something with a business team that needs clear inputs. After all, you’re trying to squeeze a cutting-edge product into a regulatory box that was designed for the bygone era of traditional banking products (remember travelers checks?) and bank branches.
I bring a practical perspective to help navigate you through the quirky alphabet soup of the payments regulatory landscape – a perspective honed by developing a sweeping range of payments products as an in-house lawyer alongside FinTechs, spanning the payments universe (challenger bank DDA products, virtual cards, ACH, P2P, digital wallets, prepaid cards, credit cards and merchant acquiring, just to name a few planets in that universe).
Not to mention I’ve negotiated countless agreements with nearly every component of the payments ecosystem, with a laser-focus on addressing real commercial risk, and not making edits just for the sake of making edits.
Your business needs to move fast and expand the law to places where it’s never been before. My promise to you is to give you quick, clear and actionable advice that aligns with the operational, financial and tech realities of your business. Much like life, there are usually no clear answers, but we’ll work together to reach a risk-based, operationalized solution that’s right for you and your business.