David M. Adlerstein

Education

David M. Adlerstein

David M. Adlerstein is Of Counsel in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.  He co-leads the Firm’s Crypto Team, combining depth of experience with blockchain technology and digital assets (dating to 2016) with over 20 years’ experience as a corporate practitioner with a focus on financial institutions and technology transactions.  Mr. Adlerstein advises companies at the leading edge of crypto and traditional finance alike on mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures (including credit card and other payment programs), capital raising transactions, and sensitive corporate governance matters.  He speaks and writes extensively about topics such as stablecoins, tokenization of real-world assets, decentralized finance, and the intersection of crypto and AI.  He also provides counsel to several nonprofit organizations on a pro bono basis.

Born in Cambridge, England, Mr. Adlerstein received a B.A. cum laude in Philosophy and History from Brandeis University in 1994 and a M.A. in European Politics from Lund University in Lund, Sweden in 1999. He received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2002, where he was a notes editor of the Columbia Law Review and a three-time Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Prior to joining Wachtell Lipton as a corporate associate in 2005, Mr. Adlerstein was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Before beginning his legal career, Mr. Adlerstein served as a sergeant in the Paratroopers Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces.

Mr. Adlerstein is a member of The Economic Club of New York and The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and is Chair of the Financial Services Technology Joint Subcommittee of the ABA Business Law Section’s Commercial Finance Committee and Private Equity & Venture Capital Committee. He serves on the boards of the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center and of The MirYam Institute, and is a multi-year mentor in a program for first year law students.

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