# Coinbase cut ties with law firms that hired former SEC enforcers

Source: https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1863774342267781222
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Coinbase-cut-ties-with-law-firms-that-hired-former-SEC-enforcers?index=0x67501eb11b448057e576cbfb926cdcc0a5637b1ef63371e1e38cd477e6dea4b6ccb2f596
Submitted by macbudkowski.eth on 2024-12-04 UTC, 1 upvote, 0 comments

## Summary

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the company will stop being a client of any law firm that hires former SEC officials who committed what he calls bad deeds under the prior administration. He names Milbank and Gurbir Grewal, saying Coinbase no longer works with the firm while Grewal is there. Armstrong calls the SEC's pursuit of the crypto industry an ethics violation, and he urges the industry to tell its law firms that hiring these former officials means losing those clients.

## Article

We've let all the law firms we work with know, that if they hire anyone who committed these bad deeds in the (soon to be) prior administration, we will no longer be a client of theirs.

Senior partners at these law firms seem unaware of the crypto industry's position on this.

For instance, Milbank recently messed up and hired Gurbir. We don't work with them now (and never will while he works there).

It's an ethics violation in my book to try and unlawfully kill an industry while refusing to publish clear rules. If you were senior there, you cannot say you were just following orders. They had the option to leave the SEC and many good people did. It was not a normal SEC tenure.

They can go work in other areas (I don't believe in permanently cancelling people), but we as an industry should not be putting money in their pocket after the abuse. Let your law firms know that hiring these folks means losing you as a client.