Benjamin Brickner

Partner | Corporate

About

Benjamin Brickner is a partner in Pierson Ferdinand’s New York office. Ben provides comprehensive legal and strategic advice on a range of financial services including corporate finance, securities, and capital markets transactions. He also counsels clients on bank finance, early-stage and start-up venture financings, SEC compliance, and broker-dealer/registered investment advisor regulation.

  • Ben has significant technical knowledge and has written extensively about decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3-focused blockchain technologies. He advises asset issuers and exchanges, institutional investors, developers, and traditional companies on digital asset transactions and the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape in this area.

    Before joining Pierson Ferdinand, Ben was a financial services partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Prior to that, Ben was counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a corporate associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, and policy advisor in the office of New Jersey Governor Richard J. Codey.

Practices

  • Banking and Financial Services

  • Capital Markets

  • Emerging Companies

  • FinTech and Blockchain

  • Government and Government Affairs

  • Private Investment Funds

  • Real Estate

  • Securities

Admissions

  • New York

  • New Jersey

  • Vermont

Education

  • Columbia University, School of Law, J.D.

  • Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, M.P.P.

  • Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences, B.A., summa cum laude

Experience

  • Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

  • Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

  • Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

  • State of New Jersey, Office of the Governor

Representative Transactions

  • Multiple startup and early-stage FinTech companies in their review and analysis of securities law considerations under the Securities Act, Securities Exchange Act, Investment Company Act, and Investment Advisers Act.

  • Centrifuge, Inc. in the structuring, launch and regulatory compliance of its real-world asset tokenization protocol, and the onboarding of multiple asset originators to the platform.

  • Lidya Holdings Inc. in its Series A funding round and general advice on regulator, investor relations and corporate governance matters.

  • Percent Technologies, Inc. (f/k/a Cadence Group, Inc.) as sole structuring consultant and arranger in an investment grade rated whole business securitization of a major global franchising company.

  • Phoenix Capital Advisors in its structuring and launch of multiple loan facilities funded by borrower-payment dependent promissory notes issued by parallel U.S. and Cayman Islands marketplace lending platforms.

  • CityBridge LLC in its renegotiation of a public communications structure franchise agreement with the City of New York.

  • A major sports and entertainment complex in a sale-leaseback of its sports and entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan.

  • A community and economic development lending business in its senior loan investment in a New Jersey Renaissance School and the related issuance of school construction bonds.

  • Multiple Community Development Financial Institutions in their highly structured New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investments in low-income communities across the United States.

Speaking Engagements

  • Panelist, “Current Events in Crypto Regulation and Enforcement: What You Need to Know About the Law Before You Do Anything (Else),” SuperCrowd 2023.

  • Speaker, “Navigating the Legal and Regulatory Waters in the World of Cryptocurrencies,” Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Seminar, New York, November 16, 2018.

Publications

  • “Warehouse Lending to Fintech Originators” in Securitizations: Legal and Regulatory Issues (ALM 2023)

  • “Fintech Laws and Regulations USA 2023” (International Comparative Legal Guides 2023)

  • “Marketplace Lending” in Consumer Financial Services Answer Book (2020 Edition) (Practising Law Institute 2020)

  • “Is the Party Over? The SEC Investigates Cryptocurrency Offerings” (Banking Law Journal 2017)

  • “Electoral Integrity in Campaign Finance Law” (NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 2017)

  • Secret Spending in the States (Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law 2016)

  • “The History of Campaign Finance Reform in the United States” in Dirty Deals: An Encyclopedia of Lobbying, Political Influence and Corruption (Amy Handlin, ed.) (ABC-CLIO 2014)

  • Reading Between the Lines: Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting (Rutgers University, Eagleton Institute of Politics 2010)

  • Final Report to Governor Jon S. Corzine, Blue Ribbon Panel on Development of Wind Turbine Facilities in Coastal Waters (State of New Jersey, 2006)

In the News