Jonathan is chair of Harris Bricken’s corporate practice group, where he helps public and private companies with international and domestic business transactions. His clientele includes companies from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Jonathan has worked and consulted in the U.S., Asia, and South America and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese.
He is an emerging blockchain legal expert and enjoys developing international legal strategies with promising web3 projects.
Businesses looking to get into the non-fungible token (NFT) space have a chance to reap some serious profit if they do it right. Rare NFTs can sell for tens of millions of dollars. In 2021, The Merge sold for $91.8 million on Nifty Gateway, making it the most expensive NFT to date. However, due to
In late 2022, Harris Bricken attorney, Jonathan Bench (Utah, USA), met with Olayimika Oyebanji, a DAO legal expert from Nigeria. The two lawyers talked about their early blockchain project experiences, DAOs and DAO projects on which they have worked, and the Web3 legal industry as a whole. Olayimika also provided unique insights into blockchain developments
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on recently filed a civil suit to force Stephen A. Wynn to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as a foreign agent working for the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The DOJ claims that in 2017, Wynn, former chief executive of Wynn Resorts, leveraged his relationship with
People all over the world have started or joined a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) without thinking about the potential legal entity ramifications in the DAO’s structure. These foundational issues need to be discussed and determined by DAO organizers, developers, members, and investors. “Jurisdictional arbitrage” is an emerging term of art used to describe this process
Advancements in technology have given rise to new quasi-business organizations known as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). DAOs are fluid and often international in scope. They are minimally regulated in some jurisdictions, with most jurisdictions still wrestling with preliminary regulatory questions. Many people join DAOs and form DAOs without a strong grasp of the potential legal
Harris Bricken attorneys Jonathan Bench and Fred Rocafort sat down again to discuss Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the legal issues common to their creation and transfer. Check out the last conversation HERE. A transcription of this talk can be found below. When dealing with NFTs, pay attention to the relevant contracts, whether they are smart contracts or traditional
Harris Bricken attorneys Jonathan Bench and Fred Rocafort sat down to discuss Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the legal issues common to their creation and transfer. A transcription of this talk can be found below. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets, defined by Merriam-Webster as “a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain,
If you’re not American, U.S. politics can be confusing. And believe us, even if you are American, they’re confusing. The United States has been mired in a partisan struggle for several decades (some would say, for the past 245 years), and during the past 10 years it has been particularly difficult to pass legislation through
Recently we have been drafting and reviewing NFT (non-fungible token)-related contracts for our clients. Some of our projects involved operating agreements for NFT companies and their owners. Others involved contracts for NFT companies with their investors or consultants. And because NFTs are intellectual property, we have also been involved in registering trademarks and preparing agreements
With a GDP of $20 trillion and a population of 325 million people, the United States is the world’s largest consumer market. Household spending is the highest in the world, accounting for more than a quarter of global household consumption, and free trade agreements with 20 countries provide enhanced access to hundreds of millions of
