Marco Santori of Cooley. Courtesy photo.

Marco Santori, who has been a partner at Cooley in New York since November 2016, is taking his first in-house counsel role with bitcoin wallet startup Blockchain.

Santori, who is head of Cooley's fintech practice, will replace Blockchain co-founder Nicolas Cary in the role of president in addition to becoming Blockchain's first chief legal officer.

A well-known figure in the blockchain and digital currency space, Santori told Corporate Counsel Tuesday that he is “excited” for his new job, but that his departure from Cooley is “bittersweet.”

According to his firm biography, he focuses on regulatory compliance for innovative products as well as “crafting new regulations where required.” His clients have included high-growth fintech companies and international financial institutions.

“A lot of lawyers have this secret fantasy of quitting their stressful Big Law jobs, I didn't feel that way. I enjoyed my work,” Santori said of his decision to leave the firm.

While he did feel like he was making an impact at Cooley with blockchain technology law, market demand for companies wanting to issue initial coin offerings recently drove a shift in what his practice entailed at the firm. He said it wasn't something that “spoke to him” as much as innovation with distributed ledger technology.

Santori said he plans to stay on at the firm for another few weeks to make sure his clients are supported before starting full time with his new company. He added that just because he's going in-house doesn't mean he won't continue to be an advocate for blockchain technology.

“I will continue to be active in the policy debate around all the different applications of blockchain,” he said. “That includes ICOs and token sales. Token sales can help to unlock value on the same order of magnitude as the internet did and I'm going to remain a part of that.”

Santori said he has been involved with the startup Blockchain before it was an established company, serving as policy counsel and advocating on the group's behalf.

He said at his new company, he will be serving in a business and legal role. As the company expands, he will help to build out the legal department, which, so far, only includes Santori.

Before joining Cooley in 2016, he previously worked as counsel and later as partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. He has also worked as counsel with Nesenoff & Miltenberg, and as a commercial litigator with Olshan Grundman.

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