Emily Kapur’s practice focuses on representing crypto, fintech, and financial services clients in complex litigation involving the novel issues raised by new technology, as well as classic disputes related to financial distress and broken M&A deals. With an Economics PhD and an extensive record at ten trials, Emily also specializes in expert witness strategy, helping top academics and business experts translate their work into accessible presentations compelling to judges and juries.
Emily focuses a substantial portion of her practice on crypto and fintech litigation, including in matters involving 11-figure damages. She has achieved successful results for crypto and fintech clients in disputes in state and federal court and arbitration in California, New York, and Delaware, including payments companies, investment managers, base layer protocols, DeFi companies, investors, and exchanges. Emily’s matters have included defending securities class action suits; representing companies in bankruptcy; litigating commercial disputes among fintech companies; pursuing plaintiff-side actions to address malfeasance and employment disputes; and advising fintech projects analyzing litigation and regulatory risks.
Emily also has substantial experience with financial distress, bespoke valuation, accounting, and M&A disputes, including playing a leading role in the Twitter v. Musk litigation, taking another broken deal dispute to trial, and working on the FTX litigation and cases arising out of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
In all of her cases, Emily employs her unique background and deep understanding of the economics of trading markets to help clients not only win at trial, but identify creative business solutions. She has received multiple awards for her leadership in fintech litigation, and she regularly lectures and publishes on new legal issues arising in crypto and other financial litigation.
Before joining Quinn Emanuel, Emily served as an expert witness and helped direct expert-witness strategy for high-profile litigation matters. She received her B.A. from Stanford University, her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, where she was a Marshall Scholar, her PhD from Stanford University, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. Emily’s PhD research focused on bank failures and the management of financial services firms in bankruptcy.
- B.Protocol
- Bolt Financial
- Celo
- Civic
- Coinbase
- Dapper Labs
- Dfinity
- Elon Musk
- Fei Labs
- FTX Estate
- Lehman Brothers Estate
- Proprietary Capital
- Ripple Labs
- Snow Phipps Group
- Wealthfront
- Stanford University
(Ph.D., Economics, 2017) - Stanford Law School
(J.D., 2015)- Stanford Law Review:
- Articles Editor
- Articles Editor
- Stanford Law Review:
- London School of Economics
(M.Sc., Economics, 2011) - Stanford University
(B.A., Economics, 2008)
- The State Bar of California
- United States District Court:
- Northern District of California
- Central District of California
- Named a "Rising Star" in Fintech by Law360’s Top Attorneys Under 40, 2022
- Named to Lawdragon 500 “Next Generation” for Crypto and Fintech Litigation, 2023
- Named a California Legal Awards “Lawyers on the Fast Track Winner”, 2023
- Firm Memorandum: "Ethereum’s Switch to Proof of Stake Changes Securities Risks", (April 2023)
- New York Law Journal: “Lessons From Early Crypto Token Securities Class Actions”, (September 2022)
- Firm Memorandum: “Are Stablecoins Securities?”, (July 2021)
- Firm Memorandum: “’That Is Not An Opinion’: How to Sue Short Sellers”, (June 2021)
- Firm Memorandum: “US Outlook: CLO Litigation Arising From The 2020 Downturn”, (April 2021)
- Firm Memorandum: “NFTs: Legal Risks from ‘Minting’ Art and Collectibles on Blockchain”, (March 2021)
- Firm Memorandum: “SEC Commissioner Proposes Securities Laws ‘Safe Harbor’ for Crypto Tokens”, (February 2021)
- Plourde-Cole, Futter, Kapur, “Latest ETF Rejection Further Entrenches SEC's Bitcoin Rift”, Law 360 (June 3, 2020)
- Speaker, “Law Firm Goals for the Blockchain Space in 2020,” Stanford Journal of Blockchain Lar & Policy Governance Summit, April 6, 2020.
- Lecture, “Hot Topics in Crypto Litigation,” Stanford University The Future of Finance Course, February 24, 2020.
- Lecture, “Stablecoins: The Promise & Perils,” The Hoover Institution Economic Policy Working Group, June 11, 2019.
- Speaker, “Economic Insights into Cryptocurrency and the Blockchain,” Women in Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Panel, March 7, 2019.
- Emily Kapur and John B. Taylor, “A New Tool for Avoiding Big-Bank Failures: ‘Chapter 14’,” The Wall Street Journal. 11 March 2016, A15.
- “The Next Lehman Bankruptcy,” in Making Failure Feasible: How Bankruptcy Reform Can End “Too Big to Fail”, edited by Kenneth E. Scott, Thomas H. Jackson, and John B. Taylor, 175-241. Hoover Institution Press: 2015.