Christopher N. LaVigne

Represented crypto exchange Binance in high profile Anti-Terrorism Act actions, and secured dismissal of claims on behalf of 535 victims tied to 64 alleged terrorist attacks worldwide after courts in the Southern District of New York and Middle District of Alabama found that Binance did not culpably associate themselves with any terrorist organization or specific attack.  

Secured an order compelling arbitration of proposed class actions against Binance, with a federal court holding that investors’ claims, including RICO, conversion, and state consumer law claims were subject to Binance’s arbitration clause despite plaintiffs’ attempts to plead around the terms of use.

Secured defense verdict for digital asset exchange Kraken after a month-long jury trial, defeating plaintiff's whistleblower claims against the company and securing verdicts that plaintiff misappropriated trade secrets from the company and breached his confidentiality obligations and duty of good faith and fair dealing to the company. Kraken stated “We're pleased with the outcome and thankful to testimony from happy Kraken employees and advocacy from our counsel at Withers.” For more information on the trial, the verdict, and Withers' and the client's reaction, please read more here.

Secured jurisdiction in the US over a long-running cross border commodities fraud dispute involving a top digital asset exchange and secured a ruling that a former customer breached the arbitration agreement in the exchange's binding terms of service by threatening to and actually suing the exchange in the UK.

Defeated financial fraud claims asserted by a former employee against a top digital asset exchange related to the exchange's allocation of company shares, and secured a judgment against the plaintiff for the costs of litigation.

Defeated claims of securities fraud, violations of the Commodities Exchange Act, and common-law fraud, among others, against one of the top digital asset exchanges in the world related to the exchange's decision to halt trading of a digital asset in light of an SEC civil lawsuit alleging the issuer of the asset conducted an unregistered securities offering.

Secured a precedent-setting decision that the physical address associated with our client's business – one of the top digital asset exchanges in the world – may qualify as a trade secret and a former employee may be liable under the Defend Trade Secrets Act for their public disclosure of the company’s address. 

Represented key figure in the Mueller investigation in connection with DOJ criminal proceedings and Congressional investigations, and secured complete dismissal of Democratic National Committee's lawsuit alleging that he conspired to hack DNC emails regarding the 2016 US presidential election.