SEC Crypto Litigation Unit Leader Leaves to Join White & Case

Ladan Stewart, a leader in the SEC crypto unit that has been enmeshed in high-profile court fights with the industry, has left the agency to join White & Case, the firm said Wednesday.

Stewart, an eight-year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, since September 2022 headed the SEC’s crypto and cyber litigation unit, the first ever specialized litigation department at the Wall Street regulator. In that role, she led actions such as last June’s lawsuit against Coinbase Global Inc., the nation’s largest crypto exchange, for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency.

She was also a member of the SEC team engaged in a protracted fight with the digital payments company Ripple over whether its XRP token is an unregistered security. A New York federal judge last year ruled that Ripple’s XRP token is not a security when sold to the general public, which the industry touted as a victory. The SEC, whose chair Gary Gensler has held that most digital tokens are securities, has moved to appeal the ruling.

Stewart, who will be a partner in the firm’s white collar defense group, said in an interview that she plans to develop a crypto and cyber defense practice at White & Case.

“Crypto is here to stay—that’s become very clear with the launch of a slew of Bitcoin” exchange-traded funds, she said. “Given the complexity and the turbulent enforcement arena, legal questions surrounding crypto are going to be at the forefront for some time.”

White & Case is among the largest US law firms, with more than 2,600 lawyers across 40-plus global offices. Major clients in recent years have included Microsoft, Abbvie Inc. and GoldenTree Asset Management. The firm earned $2.8 billion in gross revenue in 2022, marking a slight year-over-year decline, according to American Lawyer data. It has yet to report its financial figures from last year.

Stewart’s experience will be “a significant asset given the heightened regulatory scrutiny of the crypto industry in recent years,” Joel Cohen, the leader of White & Case’s white collar group, said in a statement.

Corporate Group Hires

The former SEC lawyer joins White & Case’s New York office along with John Cahill, a former Paul Hastings partner whose practice focuses on corporate real estate investing in the US and Asia markets, according to a firm statement.

Cahill, who has a large mix of private equity clients, in 2002 helped launch Paul Hastings’ Hong Kong office and divides his time between the region and New York.

His addition in White & Case’s corporate practice follows the firm’s January hire of Taurie Zeitzer, a private equity lawyer who co-chaired Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison’s mergers and acquisitions group. That same month White & Case hired Patrick Sarch, a London-based lawyer who in 2021 left the firm to be co-head of UK M&A at Hogan Lovells.