Taft, one of the fastest-growing law firms in the nation, today announced the addition of Richard B. Levin and Bobby Wenner as partners in the firm’s FinTech practice. Levin will be the Chair of Taft’s FinTech practice. Both join Taft from Nelson Mullins, where Levin was Chair of the FinTech and Regulation practice.
With these strategic hires, Taft strengthens its FinTech capabilities with plans to continue significantly growing its presence at the intersection of financial services and technology. Levin and Wenner bring deep experience representing leading financial services firms and cryptocurrency exchanges to the firm, and are poised to expand Taft’s footprint in this space.
“Since the advent of electronic trading in the late 1990s and crypto currencies in early 2011, Richard has practiced at the forefront of financial technology and regulatory change,” said Taft’s Chair and Managing Partner, Bob Hicks. “His arrival with Bobby marks a significant milestone as we continue growing our FinTech practice. Their experience and leadership will be invaluable as we continue to help clients carefully navigate this evolving legal landscape.”
“The growth and strength of the Taft platform creates tremendous potential for us in FinTech across all disciplines, and I look forward to working with our new colleagues as we recruit and build a top-tier practice at Taft,” said Levin. “We are just getting started.”
Considered one of the FinTech industry’s pioneering and leading lawyers, Levin has been recognized by Chambers and Partners every year since the introduction of the FinTech category. He has been responsible for building two Chambers-rated practices at Am Law 100 firms.
Prior to entering private practice, Levin began his career as the general counsel of one of the first electronic trading platforms in 1999 and later served as a general counsel and chief compliance officer of two successful joint ventures of leading global investment banks on Wall Street and in London. He then became one of the first lawyers to focus on the regulation of blockchain and digital assets.
Levin’s practice focuses on the representation of early stage and publicly traded FinTech and traditional financial services firms, including crypto trading platforms and custodians, broker-dealers, alternative trading systems (ATS), and exchanges. He represents these clients before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), state regulators, and Congress. Richard’s experience includes representing clients before regulators in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Wenner focuses his practice on the representation of financial technology companies working with blockchain, tokenization, digital assets, and cryptocurrencies seeking regulatory advice as they grow their business. He has extensive experience in product development, regulatory licensure application, and advocacy in complex digital asset legal issues. He also previously served as the chief legal officer of a FINRA-member digital asset issuance and trading platform.
Wenner’s clients include broker-dealers, ATSs, digital asset and currency trading platforms, digital asset issuers and custodians, securities exchanges, and derivatives trading platforms including swap execution facilities, among other regulated entities. He has represented these clients before Congress, the SEC, FINRA, the CFTC, and state financial services regulators. Wenner also represents money services businesses and payment processors before the federal banking regulators, including, the FinCEN, and state banking regulators.
Through the first four months of the year, Taft has continued to grow strategically through both lateral hiring and acquisitions. Taft has added 19 lateral partners as part of more than 50 lateral attorney hires firmwide, growing at a faster pace than in 2024.
To start 2025, Taft completed its merger with Sherman & Howard, Denver’s oldest and third-largest firm, on Jan. 1. As a result of this merger, Taft expanded its footprint to the Mountain West region and added annual revenues of more than $100 million and approximately 125 lawyers to Taft’s nationwide roster. In June, Taft will complete its merger with the Mrachek Law Firm, a litigation boutique based in West Palm Beach and Stuart, marking the firm’s move into Florida and the Southeast region.
More than 1,000 attorneys strong today, Taft’s offices span from the Mountain West region to Washington, D.C. as the firm continues to build a nationwide presence.