Patrick Daugherty directs a corporate, M&A, capital markets, financial regulatory, and fintech law practice. He founded and chairs the blockchain and digital assets practice of Foley & Lardner LLP. He also is the most senior securities lawyer in the firm, engaging directly with senior federal officials on behalf of clients and in the public interest in addition to managing public company M&A and capital raising projects.
Digital asset clients have included Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Ava Labs, Coinbase, CoinFlip, CoinList, Cube Exchange, DRW Cumberland, Galaxy Digital, INX, OKX, Robinhood, Schwab, Webull and other platforms, as well as private crypto asset funds, family offices, proprietary trading firms, Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain developers and token sellers. He defended bank executives investigated by federal regulators in Operation Chokepoint 2.0.
Patrick advises boards and senior executives of his corporate clients. He has led M&A and capital raising transactions for scores of companies in practically every industry, including banking, biotechnology, consumer products, electronics, energy, food processing, forest products, health care, media and entertainment, original equipment manufacturing, real estate, restaurants, retail, robotics, security, sports, steel, utilities, telecommunications, textiles, utilities and vehicle assembly. He devotes much of his time to the needs of banks, insurance companies, FCMs, securities broker-dealers, registered exchanges and other financial services firms.
A graduate of Northwestern and Cornell, Patrick Daugherty began his career by clerking for two Chief Judges of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward Fleischman at SEC headquarters. While at the SEC he helped craft Rule 144A and Regulation S, which are SEC registration exemptions used ever since in institutional and off-shore markets. Today he serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society Financial Services Practice Group and conducts programs for the Society on the SEC and digital assets. He submits comments to Capitol Hill on proposed federal legislation and to the SEC on proposed regulations.
A Life Member of the American Law Institute, Patrick is the author, co-author, or editor of several books and countless essays on securities regulation and new financial products. He has been on the Planning Committee of the Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute for more than a decade. From 2022 to 2025, while practicing law, he taught a seminar that he created on “Digital Assets” on site at Cornell Law School. Starting in 2025, he co-teaches (with Professor John O. McGinnis) another seminar on “Blockchain and the Law of Cryptocurrency” at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. In coordination with senior faculty and other crypto bar leaders, he directs an annual symposium on digital assets at the University of Chicago Law School.
Awards and Recognition*
- Stand-out Lawyer, Thomson Reuters (2025)
- The Best Lawyers in America©
- Corporate Governance Law (2012-2024)
- Corporate Law (2010-2024)
- Securities/Capital Markets Law (2007, 2012-2024)
- Securities Regulation (2011-2024)
- Corporate Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Chicago (2022)
- Corporate Governance and Compliance Law (2010-2011)
- Securities Law (2010-2011)
- The Legal 500
- Recognized his mergers & acquisitions work (2010)
- Super Lawyers®
- Selected for the first and all subsequent editions for his achievements in securities and corporate finance
- Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™
- Peer Review Rated as AV Preeminent®, the highest performance rating in the system, and has been so rated since his first evaluation more than 20 years ago
- Awarded the Judicial AV Preeminent® Rating, which is the highest possible distinction by both his peers and the Judiciary (2019)
- The American Lawyer
- Named to the “Midwest Trailblazers” list by (2022)
- Michigan Lawyers Weekly
- Selected as “Michigan Lawyer of the Year” (2007)
- The only corporate lawyer so honored, he was labeled a “financial wiz” and a “mastermind”
- Named to DBusiness magazine’s list of “Top Lawyers” in the areas of corporate governance and compliance law and securities law
- Named a Best Lawyers’ Detroit Corporate Governance Law “Lawyer of the Year” even while living and working in Chicago
- According to Chambers USA, Patrick is “top of the class for capital raising”
* The Illinois Supreme Court does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law and no certificate, award or recognition is a requirement to practice law in Illinois.
Thought Leadership
Patrick trained as a corporate and securities lawyer in Wall Street after clerking one year for Lloyd F. MacMahon and Edward Weinfeld, each a (late) Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (New York City). Patrick is a director-at-large of the Northwestern Alumni Association and is on the committee charged with leading Northwestern’s $3.75 billion capital campaign.
Patrick was invited to join the American Law Institute at age 37 and participates in continuing education programs of the ABA Sections of Administrative Law and Business Law (Committees on Federal Regulation of Securities, Legal Opinions, Mergers and Acquisitions, Professional Responsibility and Small Business). He is on the Planning Committee of the Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute at Northwestern Pritzker law school.
In the course of building client service teams at Foley, Patrick won the firm’s Carl H. Hitchner “Mentor of the Year” award in its inaugural year upon the recommendation of associates in six different offices.
Patrick also has led pro-business initiatives of state and local bar associations. As a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, he authored a white paper that supported New York’s enactment of path-breaking governing-law-selection and forum-selection legislation, enabling business executives and financiers to contract cross-border with full confidence that their choices of New York law and New York courtrooms would be respected should a dispute arise. Later, in North Carolina, he served on Governor Jim Hunt’s Entrepreneurial Development Board, boosting investment and job growth throughout the Tar Heel State.
A recognized thought leader on the SEC, the capital markets, M&A, corporate governance, financial innovation and regulatory reform, Patrick has taught classes and made presentations at Cornell, Duke, Howard, Michigan State, Northwestern, Seton Hall, Wake Forest University, and Wayne State law schools. He has published scholarly articles (e.g., “Rethinking the Ban on General Solicitation” in the Emory Law Journal), co-authored one book (Securities Arbitration: Practice and Forms, published by Matthew Bender) and edited another (Decennial Review of Developments in Business Financing, published by the ABA).
Patrick co-authored “Introduction to the Securities Act of 1933 and to the Securities and Exchange Commission” in the Federal Securities Act of 1933 treatise published by Matthew Bender. He lectures frequently to legal, accounting, business, and financial groups, has been interviewed about legal developments on radio, TV, and cable news programs, and has been quoted for his insight on legal topics in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune.
Ten Minute Interview: Crypto
2026 Outlook for Boards and General Counsel: Key Governance, Enforcement and Securities Law Developments
Louis Lehot and Patrick Daugherty Give Guidance on Crypto-Asset Strategy
Crypto Asset Strategy for Corporate Legal Leaders: What CLOs and GCs Should Know and Do in 2026
Crypto Exits Surge in 2025: Momentum Builds for an Even Bigger 2026
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