A Conversation with Stephen Palley, Partner at Anderson Kill

The following transcript is taken from episode five of The Scoop, The Block's new podcast. Listen below and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback to [email protected]. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

In this episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and Ryan Todd interview Stephen Palley, Partner at corporate law firm Anderson Kill. Over the course of a forty-five minute long conversation, Stephen discusses the most current lawsuits in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, including recent developments at Bitfinex and Tether. Stephen also shares his thoughts on projects like Maker and how he sees regulation developing.


Frank Chaparro: Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to The Scoop. The Block's podcast for crypto thrill seekers and decision makers. Again today I'm joined by my colleague Ryan Todd and our guest is our very dear friend The Block's lawyer, outside counsel and one of the most prolific writers, are we allowed to say that?

Stephen Palley: I think you can say most prolific Frank, if you're laying it on thick.

Frank: There we go. Writer on all things law in the crypto world, I call him Palley. I don't know if I should call him Stephen for the podcast. It just sounds so unnatural so I'll call him Palley throughout but full name Stephen Palley (Pail-ey) at Anderson Kill.

Stephen: And I'd just like to say in case my dad is listening it's actually Pal-ey.

Frank: Let's let's dive in. I know you got a piece coming out on The Block every week or so, you and Nelson put out these really interesting deep dives on the cases that come across your desk and that you find interesting. What are you working on right now?

Stephen: So this morning and as a special thing for listeners of The Scoop we're going to tell you a little bit about what we're publishing in today's crypto case law minute which is number 35 by the way. Which means that Nelson and I have written up more than 100 cases. That's published opinions and lawsuits since we started in September/October. So anyone who thinks that crypto law is sleepy is completely wrong. We never have trouble finding material. This week I found a really really interesting new opinion in the Ira Kleinman versus Craig Wright lawsuit. It's not something that's going to break major ground in the legal world but as a litigator as someone who's been in probably more than a thousand depositions taking and defending them, it struck my interest. And this has the incredibly interesting name, this opinion as order regarding plaintiff's request to redepose a defendant. And it was issued yesterday so this is breaking news. Only people who are listening to The Scoop will know about this unless they also read CCN. This new order was just issued in the ongoing and very heated Wright versus Kleiman litigation in federal court in Florida. During a deposition that took place in London last month, Mr. Wright himself objected to some of the questions that were posed to him claiming that there was a court order that had been entered in Australia regarding his wife and also saying that he wasn't going to answer questions about his family. Now, let me give you a little bit of a lead in...

Frank: Before we dive into that let's set up what this case is about, right? So we have Craig Wright who is involved with this Australian gentleman Kleiman who is now deceased. And his estate is suing over money he's owed?

Stephen: Yeah. There's like about a billion dollars or maybe more in crypto that's involved. Wright is Australian, Kleiman is American. And his brother Ira Kleiman is filing suit. And one of the issues in this case interestingly is the identity of Satoshi and is Craig Wright actually Satoshi? Which he has one point demured on, later said he was then he wasn't. Now he says again that he is. So there's also parallel litigation going on in London right now is my understanding, this case is about who created Bitcoin and who's entitled to a whole ton of it. And this lawsuit was filed over a year ago and it's really just starting to get going.

Frank: What's this update now, let's let's dig into the update

Stephen: Basically in order to understand the significance of this opinion you got to understand a little bit about litigation. So I'm going to give everyone a little bit of a civil procedure lesson, I promise it will be more interesting than the civ pro class that I had my first year in law school.

Frank: And this is for free folks. You usually have to shovel out thousands of dollars, this is legal 101 right here, right now.

Stephen: Right here on The Scoop, law on The Block. This will also help you understand law shows on television, to understand how this order in which the court sort of smacked Craig Wright down, why it's important, you got to understand a little bit about litigation and how it works. And part of litigation is something called discovery and discovery is exactly what it sounds like. It allows the parties in a lawsuit to get information from each other so they can understand claims and defenses and defend themselves and also prosecute their claims. Deposi