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The rapid growth of the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry is attracting the attention of experienced lawyers.
Former Attorney General under the Bush Administration and veteran Supreme Court lawyer Paul Clement will join the board of directors of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, FOX Business reports.
Clement is considered one of the most accomplished lawyers in the field, having argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court over a 30-year career. His most recent victory was the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1984 Chevron doctrine, which is expected to significantly curtail federal agencies’ regulatory powers.
“We’re not going to let the law change,” Paul Clement, a former U.S. attorney general and attorney representing the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and other petitioners, told reporters outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2019. (Photo by Drew Ungerer/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Coinbase is currently embroiled in three separate legal battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Clement’s appointment to the board is a sign of the exchange’s increased emphasis on legal action.
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“Coinbase is the gold standard among cryptocurrency exchanges because they hire the best and brightest at all levels, and Paul Clement is no exception,” former Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, who sits on Coinbase’s global advisory board, told Fox Business. “Adding one of the greatest legal minds of our generation to their board of directors shows that Coinbase is stepping up in the fight for clear rules for crypto.”
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Coinbase also has former Secretary of Labor and son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Eugene Scalia, as part of its legal team facing the SEC.
Eugene Scalia served as Secretary of Labor under the Trump administration from 2019 to 2021. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images/Getty Images)
In his new role, Clement will advise Coinbase on its goal of helping provide regulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency industry, which has been subject to increased regulation by the SEC and a squeeze on the banking system by the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators.
Clement recently authored an amicus brief on behalf of cryptocurrency bank Custody, which is currently appealing a Wyoming District Court ruling that found the Federal Reserve had the authority to refuse to issue Custody a master account that would give it access to the central bank’s payments system.
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In his brief, Clement argued that giving the Fed unlimited power to deny state-chartered banks equal access to their master accounts raises “serious constitutional questions” about the bank’s internal structure, where official decisions are made by the Fed governor, who is supposed to be independent of the government.
“Paul is one of the most respected members of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar and currently has multiple legal ‘cruise missiles’ aimed squarely at federal regulators who are trying to crush the law-abiding U.S. cryptocurrency industry by ignoring the law,” Custody Bank CEO Caitlin Long told FOX Business. “Several federal regulators are abusing their power, and Paul’s job is to stop those abuses.”
Custody Bank CEO Caitlin Long speaks at the Mesari Mainnet Summit in New York on September 21, 2023. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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In addition to Clement, Coinbase has also appointed former Democratic consultant turned entrepreneur Chris Lehane and outgoing Aon financial chief Krista Davis to its board, bringing the total number of directors from seven to 10.
