Sam Maxson

Sam Maxson is an associate in the London office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Emerging Companies Fintech Practice and the Fintech Industry Group.

Mr. Maxson regularly advises a wide range of clients (including banks, insurers, investment firms, financial markets infrastructure providers, and technology companies) on all aspects of financial regulation. Mr. Maxson has a particular focus on fintech and InsurTech, advising both established and emerging businesses on the application of global financial regulation to new and novel uses of technology in finance and insurance. His expertise also extends to the increasingly widespread interest in cryptoassets and "tokenisation" of financial markets.

Mr. Maxson's experience includes advising:

• Coinbase’s US$43 billion direct listing on Nasdaq
• Central Bank of Egypt on developing and drafting a bespoke legal and regulatory regime for payment systems, payments services, and FinTech to be adopted in that jurisdiction  
• Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), on its £1.65 billion acquisition, along with Generation Investment Management, of General Atlantic and H.I.G. Capital's investment in FNZ, a UK-based investment platform technology provider
• Distributed ledger technology (DLT) specialists Clearmatics and a consortium of leading investment banks on the Utility Settlement Coin project to develop a DLT-based payment system*   
• A leading investment bank on legal and financial regulatory aspects of offering cryptocurrency trading services to its clients*   
• An online peer-to-peer platform for the sale and purchase of fractional interests in buy-to-let properties on technical financial regulatory aspects of an application for authorization*   
• A leading investment bank and investment exchange operator on a joint venture to develop an innovative multilateral trading platform*   
• A potential purchaser of an equity stake in challenger bank Tandem Bank in relation to change in control approvals and financial regulatory due diligence*   
• An insurer on the authorization and ongoing financial regulatory requirements relating to an innovative project to provide account aggregation and payment initiation services*   

During 2017, Mr. Maxson was seconded to Aviva UK Digital working from Aviva’s “Digital Garage” in Hoxton Square, London. During his time at the Digital Garage, he acted as the primary legal contact for the Aviva UK Digital Data Analytics Team and the Aviva Group Innovation Team advising on a broad range of legal issues involved in the delivery of digital assets including financial regulation, data protection and privacy, and outsourcing. He was the lead Aviva UK Digital legal adviser in the acquisition by Aviva of a majority stake in the “robo” investment manager Wealthify and engaged regularly with Aviva-sponsored fintech and InsurTech startups through technology startup incubator Founders Factory.

 *Matter handled prior to joining Latham