Joining Paradigm

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining Paradigm as Chief Legal Officer, helping Matt and Fred expand the outstanding firm they founded only four years ago. I will be working alongside the best Legal and Policy teams in the industry, accelerating our hiring and further focusing our goals.

I’ve worked as an in-house tech lawyer since 2013. Reid Hoffman is right – being an entrepreneur is like throwing yourself off a cliff, and I’ve had the privilege of supporting some of the very best through their toughest moments. It is because of this experience that the Paradigm ethos appealed to me instantly: founders are front and center, and VCs are fortunate to support them.

I’ve been in and around crypto since 2018, when I joined Anchorage Digital, the first crypto company to receive a federal bank charter, as one of its earliest employees. I got a true baptism by fire from Nathan McCauley and Diogo Monica, gifted founders who were always patient enough to stop and explain hard concepts to a lawyer trying to learn. Since then, I joined the Anchorage Board, along with the Board of Protocol Labs, one of the companies developing the groundbreaking Filecoin distributed storage network.

It will be a true privilege to work with Alana Palmedo, Paradigm’s fearless COO, who established and grew the firm’s operations from zero to today. Alana’s strategic prowess and flawless execution have been a critical part of the firm’s growth.

I am looking forward to partnering with Reena Jashnani-Slusarz, Paradigm’s talented General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. I am blown away at what Reena has accomplished since stepping into this dual role in 2021. In addition to standing up critical compliance programs, she has supported a fast-paced investment team without skipping a beat. She has been aided by Paradigm’s brilliant legal team, Rodrigo Seira and Josh Ephraim.

I also am excited to work with Justin Slaughter, the Director of Policy. Justin is a well-known leader in the crypto space. In the months leading up to my start date at Paradigm, I’ve heard a steady drumbeat of praise about Justin from founders, policy leads, and GCs across the industry. He brings a rare combination to the role: technical policy chops and a keen strategic mind.

Crypto has recently been on a roller coaster ride. But the ups and downs of BTC and ETH are just noise. The promise of web3 comes into sharper focus with every passing day. It’s no longer just a hunch – I am now confident that today’s builders will democratize finance, create a more equitable internet, and bring us tools that help humans exchange goods, services, opinions, and information trustlessly.

Over the next few years, I look forward to working with the exciting, cacophonous web3 community to tell our story and definitively flatten the meme that our technology is just a solution in search of a problem (a criticism leveled against the internet in the early days, too). The future is obvious, and it’s our job to make it happen in partnership with regulators.

If you are a lawyer, policy professional, compliance officer, or a technologist with a love for explaining your trade to laypersons, Paradigm is hiring. :)