Joel Telpner

Former Chief Legal Officer & Chief Policy Officer; Special Counsel and Head of Fintech & Blockchain, Sullivan & Worcester

Joel Telpner is one of the world’s leading legal architects at the intersection of financial regulation, decentralized governance, and digital-asset market structures. As Chief Legal & Policy Officer of Input Output (IOHK/IOG), he served as primary drafter of the Cardano Blockchain Constitution and architect of one of the first large-scale decentralized governance systems implemented for a global blockchain ecosystem, overseeing global workshops and the constitutional convention to ratify it. Joel also played a pivotal role in pioneering the legal framework for digital securities, serving as lead attorney for Overstock.com’s groundbreaking SEC-registered blockchain equity offering—the first of its kind in U.S. history.

Joel’s career spans more than 30 years across corporate and structured finance, derivatives, sovereign debt restructurings, venture investing, financial services regulation, and C-suite governance. As a young attorney at Shearman & Sterling in New York and Paris, he worked on sovereign debt restructurings for Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina totaling more than half a trillion dollars. He subsequently served as General Counsel for Julius Baer’s New York branch and CDC North America (now Natixis), helped launch Koch Ventures as a Managing Director, and was a corporate and finance partner at Mayer Brown and Jones Day. He has also taught as an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. Today he serves as Special Counsel for the Fintech & Blockchain Practice at Sullivan & Worcester LLP and as President of Telpner Advisors, where he translates Cardano’s governance lessons into private and public governance reform.

Joel was recognized by Chambers & Partners as one of the ten leading Fintech, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency lawyers in the United States; Legal 500 ranks him as one of the six leading Fintech lawyers nationally. He was named a Fintech VIP by Law360 and a Trailblazer in the National Law Journal’s Inaugural Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Fintech List. He has been quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times and Washington Post. He speaks globally on digital assets and blockchain policy, including at Davos, Harvard, and Wharton, amongst many other global locations.

Joel holds a BBA in Economics and Finance and a JD with Distinction from the University of Iowa, and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.