Home / People / Charles Kerrigan
Portrait ofCharles Kerrigan

Charles Kerrigan

Partner

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Cannon Place
78 Cannon Street
London
EC4N 6AF
United Kingdom
Languages English, French, Russian

Charles Kerrigan is a partner in the Finance Team and part of the specialist Crypto and Digital Assets Team at CMS London specialising in emerging technologies including crypto, digital assets, decentralised finance and AI.  

He works on corporate finance and venture capital transactions in crypto, tokenisation, NFTs, Web3 and DeFi.

Charles is part of teams working on investing and setting standards for emtech in the UK, Europe and the US. He works on consulting projects on blockchain and AI for public bodies, policy makers, standards institutions, and corporations. 

He has worked on transactions worth over $5bn funding fintech platforms; on over 65 NFT projects; for more than 250 cryptoasset clients; including global exchanges, blockchain gaming and play-to-earn projects, DeFi and Web3 platforms; crypto and digital assets investment & M&A; tokenisation projects for debt, equity and alternative assets. 

The Blockchain Industry Landscape Overview 2018 names Charles as "one of the UK’s leading influencers on blockchain". He is the UK’s “recommended lawyer” for blockchain and digital technology in the UK Parliament Hub.

 

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"Recommended - Fintech and Blockchain"

Whos Who Legal 2022

"most daring, innovative and creative lawyers."

Lawyer Hot 100, 2022

"Charles Kerrigan is a highly respected individual who excels at advising clients on emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and blockchain technology."

Who's Who Legal - Blockchain, 2021

"Charles Kerrigan is the go-to person in the London market for funding intangible and digital assets."

Legal 500, 2019

"is an excellent technical lawyer with a strong ability to be commercial. He is immensely clever and always finds a workable solution."

Chambers, 2019

"very pragmatic, very attuned to the commercial dynamics and very easy to work with…"

Chambers, 2019

"understands the commercial risk areas of a deal and can be trusted to run a transaction"

Legal 500

"has particular expertise with regards to blockchain"

Legal 500, 2022

"clients praise the 'technically excellent' Charles Kerrigan", “insightful, clever and well-connected”

Legal 500

"a creative but risk-alert and practical lawyer".

Legal 500

"unassuming dynamism"

Chambers

Relevant experience

  • Clients include: 20th Century Fox, BAE, Bank of America, BBC, Curzon Advisers Limited, Lloyds Banking Group, MindCandy, UBS Global Asset Management, Wells Fargo and Vodafone.
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Memberships & Roles

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Awards & Rankings

  • Crypto A.M. Award Winner 2020 for professional services
  • Security Tokens Realised Award Winner - London 2020
  • Leading individual - Fintech, Legal 500
  • Ranked lawyer for Banking & Finance, Chambers
  • Nominee for Individual Lawyer of the Year for TMT, Legal 500 UK Awards 2020
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Publications

Policy

  • Advisory boards of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence (APPG AI) and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain (APPG Blockchain). 
  • Bank of England’s Financial Markets Law Committee on Virtual Currencies.
  • Special Consultee to the UK LawTech Delivery Panel’s Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts.
  • Expert consultant to the UNCITRAL UNIDROIT group on legal issues related to the digital economy. 
  • UK Law Commission Commercial law team on legal policy relating to emerging technology.

Books

  • December 2023 - Crypto and Digital Assets Law and Regulation - Sweet and Maxwell, Co-author and Editor
  • (due in 2024) - Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Regulation - Global Legal Group, Co-author
  • 2022 - AI, Machine Learning & Big Data - Global Legal Group, Contributing Editor
  • 2022 - Artificial Intelligence Law and Regulation - Edward Elgar, Co-author and Editor
  • 2020 - Practical Lending and Security Precedents - Sweet and Maxwell, General Editor
  • 2020 - Growing with Blockchain - Novaro Publishing, Co-author
  • 2019 - The Financing of Intangible Assets, TMT Finance and Emerging Technologies (Butterworths) 
  • 2019 - Responsible AI - ILTA, Co-author

Book review

  • [The Financing of Intangible Assets: TMT Finance and Emerging Technologies.] “As businesses innovate, the law must keep pace. Far from being a specialist text, Kerrigan’s book deserves to become mainstream required reading.” (Journal of International Banking and Financial Law 2020)

Reports

  • 2022 - UK Finance: NFTs in Financial Services, Author
  • 2022 - Asset Recovery and International Cooperation (including Mutual Legal Assistance), Team member for report on Crypto-assets and asset recovery
  • 2022 - Citywealth Crypto 100: Chair of Editorial Board

Press and Journals

Monthly columns in City AM and Citywire; quarterly column in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law; occasional writing in The Times; The Guardian; Bloomberg UK Financial Services Law Journal; E-Finance and Payments Law and Policy; Financier Worldwide; International Accountant.

Representative Articles

  • 2023 - Embedded finance providers: friend or foe? - Financier Worldwide.
  • Aug 2022 - Ralph, Dobs and the Flippening - Citywire August
  • July 2022 - Crypto isn’t a what, it’s a how - Citywire 
  • 2022 - Crypto Yield Products - JIBFL
  • 2021 - That note on NFTs that got turned into an NFT, written by lawyers interested in NFTs, Erika-Federis.medium.com
  • 2021 - The Work of Art in the Age of Mathematical Representation - City AM
  • 2020 - Tokenisation and Digital Assets: Blockchain in Capital Raising - JIBFL
  • 2019 - Laws and Legal principles relating to Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies: A Taxonomy - JIBFL
  • 2019 - Artificial Intelligence and Equity; Artificial Intelligence and Uncertainty; Artificial Intelligence and Fallibility - Journal of International Banking and Financial Law
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Lectures list

  • Lecturer on finance and fintech, including at LSE, UCL and City University.
  • City of London University of Law – lecturer in Secured Lending, Subordination and Capital Markets.
  • The London School of Economics and Political Science – lecturer on the LLM in The Law and Practice of International Finance; guest lecturer on Digital Money topics
  • Biometrics Institute 
  • International Legal Technology Association, Insight Conference
  • UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) – lecturer on IP Transactions: Law and Practice
  • Tomorrow's Transactions Forum - 18th/19th March 2015 - speaker
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Education

  • 1993 - Law – Oxford University, MA
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Feed

11/03/2024
Looking ahead to the EU AI Act
Introduction The European Union is preparing for the imminent adoption of the world’s most significant legislation on Artificial Intelligence, solidifying its position as a pioneer among global legislators. This initiative aims to establish and reinforce the EU’s role as a premier hub for AI while ensuring that AI development remains focused on human-centered and trustworthy principles. To expedite the achievement of these goals, on 8 December 2023, after three days of debate, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union finally reached a provisional agreement on the “Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence” (the so-called AI Act), which aims to ensure that AI systems placed on the European market are safe and respect the fundamental rights and values of the EU. Subsequent to this provisional agreement, technical refinement of the AI Act continued to finalise the regulation’s details and text. The final vote of the European Parliament on the AI Act will take place at 13 March 2024. Since the European Parliament's Committees on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) have endorsed overwhelmingly the proposed text, the approval of the European Parliament can be expected. After a long and complex journey that began in 2021 with the European Commission’s proposal of a draft AI Act, this new regulation is expected to be passed into law in spring 2024, once it has been approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union . The AI Act aims to ensure that the marketing and use of AI systems and their outputs in the EU are consistent with fundamental rights under EU law, such as privacy, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability. Adopting a dual approach, it outright prohibits AI systems deemed to pose unacceptable risks while imposing regulatory obligations on other AI systems and their outputs. The new regulation, which also aims to strike a fair balance between innovation and the protection of individuals, not only makes Europe a world leader in the regulation of this new technology, but also endeavours to create a legal framework that users of AI technologies will be able to comply with in order to make the most of this significant development opportunity. In this article we provide a first overview of the key points contained in the text of the AI Act1This article (including the relevant citations below) is based on the latest draft available on the Council’s website. The AI Act remains subject to possible further refinement, but not as regards content, and the text referred to for this article should be considered as the closest to the one that will be voted on by the EU Parliament. footnote that companies should be aware of in order to prepare for the implementing regulation.
01/03/2024
Digital Assets
Does your business have or is it ready for digitalisation and digital assets? Digital assets are transforming the world of business. Not just technologies in the news, like AI and crypto currencies, but a whole world of technological advances, from digital twins and extended reality to smart contracts and token­isa­tion. For tech businesses and those already using such technology to develop and market new products, much of this is core activity and relatively well understood – although legal and regulatory uncertainties remain, and potential pitfalls still exist for the unwary. But other business leaders, often less familiar with the territory, have to manage an increasingly complex assortment of issues that never troubled their predecessors, ranging from protecting their brand in the metaverse to deciding whether they should tokenise their shares or accept payments in crypto currencies. This section of Bandwidth looks at issues around the development and regulation of a wide variety of digital assets, and discusses how businesses can embrace them to innovate and evolve.
27/02/2024
Law Commission’s draft Digital Assets Bill – welcome news for the UK
Following an extensive consultation and publication of its final report in June 2023, the Law Commission has now published its draft Digital Assets Bill (the “Bill”). The Bill is designed “to ensure...
26/02/2024
Law Commission’s draft Digital Assets Bill – welcome news for the UK
Following an extensive consultation and publication of its final report in June 2023, the Law Commission has now published its draft Digital Assets Bill (the “Bill”). The Bill is designed “to ensure...
21/02/2024
A User's Guide to the EU AI Act
The UK and Israel are both EU-adjacent nations with innovative and tech-savvy businesses that will be keen to understand how artificial intelligence and automation will unlock opportunities and further their ambitious growth plans. This webinar will cover why the EU AI Act exists, what it means and how to practically approach compliance with the Act.
07/02/2024
CMS Expert Guide to Crypto Regulation in United Kingdom
1. How is crypto regulated? 2. Are the following activities regulated or unregulated in your jurisdiction? ― Exchange (buy/sell) ― Custody (hold) ― Bor­row­ing/lend­ing ― Yield/staking Section...
Comparable
11/12/2023
UK Fund Tokenisation
The Investment Association (IA) has published a report with a blueprint for implementing the tokenisation of UK investment funds.The report recommends a phased approach to achieving the ultimate goal...
29/09/2023
The subscription economy
The global subscription economy is one of the great success stories of the past decade. By the end of 2021, it was estimated to be worth $650bn, with a projected value of $1.5tn by 2025. Thanks to businesses such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, media streaming may be the most high-profile example of the subscription model. Retail is another sector where subscriptions are prominent. According to  Zuora and Deloitte Digital, 37% of consumers worldwide have at least one active retail subscription – a figure expected to reach 53% by 2025. But the subscription model is gaining ground in most consumer sectors, from automotive through health and personal care to travel. It is also well established in the B2B arena, notably through SaaS (software as a service).
20/09/2023
CMS bolsters Financial Services Regulatory team with new hire
International law firm CMS has bolstered its market leading Financial Services practice with the addition of new partner Mike Ringer, who joins the Financial Services Regulatory team in London. Mike was...
14/08/2023
Intelligent Tech
The digital revolution is here, and Intelligent Tech is leading the way! Brought to you by experts in the Finance team specialising in digital assets and deep tech, this series explores important and topical themes in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Join us for insightful conversations with a range of guests, each sharing their expertise in specific areas. In this series, we’ll cover a range of topics such as deepfakes, records management and the regulatory considerations of AI. Stay tuned as we dive into these areas!
25/07/2023
CMS advises Laser Digital on Webn Group investment
International law firm CMS has advised digital asset business Laser Digital on its investment in Webn Group, an incubation hub for fintech and Web3 innovators backed by Alan Howard. Laser Digital is Nomura’s...
28/04/2023
Digital Assets: Non-Fungible Tokens
CMS has collaborated with UK Finance to deliver a report on NFTs and the broader digital assets ecosystem. From how digital assets actually work to how they are regulated and how they can be used by financial...