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ABOUT ME

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ABOUT ME

I am a Law Professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law, where my research focuses on the intersection between commercial law, bankruptcy, emerging technologies, and intangible assets. 

 

Since 2018, I have focused on the transformative effects of distributed ledger technologies like cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, NFTs, and tokenizations on the existing commercial law framework, and the potential legislative reforms they may demand.

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I was a key contributor to the ULC/ALI Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies Committee that drafted the 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code and Article 12. At present, I am a member of the ULC Committee working on the enactment of these new laws across the United States. I was also a member of the Drafting Committee that prepared the UNIDROIT Working Group on Digital Assets and Private Law and continued to be involved in the adoption of this international soft-law instrument.

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More recently, my research has expanded to explore the private law dimensions of verified carbon credits. I am currently a member of the drafting committee for the UNIDROIT Working Group on the Legal Nature of Verified Carbon Credits and the co-reporter for the Uniform Law Commission Commercial Law Framework for Voluntary Carbon Credits Committee.   

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My scholarship has been published in leading law journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Arizona State Law Journal, Florida Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, European Law Journal, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, and Law & Contemporary Problems. My recent paper, The Private Law of Stablecoins (with Professors Kara Bruce and Christopher Odinet), was awarded the Grant Gilmore Award of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers in recognition of “superior writing in the field of commercial finance law”.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

SELECETED PUBLICATIOS

TEACHING INTERESTS

TEACHING INTERESTS

  • Foundation Courses: Contract Law, Tort Law

  • Elective Courses: Secured Transactions, Bankruptcy Law, Business Organizations, International Business Transactions, and Blockchain and the Law

LAW REFORM

LAW REFORM

  • Uniform Law Commission

    • Study Committee on the Verified Carbon Credits (September 2024 – present)

      • Reporter​

    • Drafting Committee on the Virtual Currency Customer Protection Act (June 2023 – present)

      • Reporter

    • Permanent Editorial Board for the Uniform Commercial Code (March 2022 – present)

      • Associate Research Director (co-appointment with Professor Carla Reyes)

    • Enactment Committee for the 2022 Uniform Commercial Code Amendments (August 2022 – present)

      • Member​

    • UCC and Emerging Technologies Committee (Joint Committee with the American Law Institute) (June 2019 – July 2022)

  • Unidroit ​

    • Drafting Committee for the Working Group developing the Unidroit Principles on Verified Carbon Credits (June 2024 – present)

    • Drafting Committee for the Working Group developing the Unidroit Principles on Digital Assets (April 2022 – 2023)

    • Working Group developing the Unidroit Model Law on Warehouse Receipts (April 2022 – 2023)

  • Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

    • Advisor for International Commercial Law affairs (2008 – present)

    • Delegate to the United National Commission on Trade Laws (UNCITRAL) (2008 – 2017), representing the Italian government in the negotiations for:

      • The UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions: Guide to Enactment (2017);

      • UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions (2016);

      • UNCITRAL Guide on the Implementation of a Security Rights Registry (2013);

      • UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions: Supplement on Security Rights in Intellectual Property (2010)

MEDIA & INVITED TALKS

MEDA & INVITED TALKS

  • Media

  • Recent Invited Talks

    • UNCITRAL Colloquium: Navigating the new era of digital finance, New York City. ‘Verified Carbon Credits as Collateral in Secured Transactions’ (2025)

    • VII Conference on International Coordination of Secured Transactions Reform. ‘Verified Carbon Credits: Private Law Regime and Use as Collateral’ (2024)

    • Practicing Law Institute, San Francisco. ‘NFTs in Commercial Transactions’ (2024)

    • Harvard University, Harvard-Wharton Insolvency and Restructuring Conference, Boston. ‘DAOs in Financial Distress’ (2024)

    • University of Pennsylvania, Regulation & Governance Conference, Philadelphia. ‘Debt Tokens’ (2024)

    • BYU/UChicago, Winter Bankruptcy Conference, Park City. ‘Debt Tokens’ (2024)

    • Office of the Comptroller of The Currency, Washington DC. ‘Tokenization’ (2024)

    • University of Chicago, Chicago. ‘Digital Assets & the 2022 UCC Amendments’ (2024)

    • Association of American Law Schools, Washington DC. ‘Debt Tokens’ (2024)

    • UNIDROIT, Rome. ‘The DAPL Principles and the Transfer of Digital Assets’ (2023)

    • Texas A&M Law School, Fort Worth. ‘UCC Article 12: It’s All About Control!’ (2023)

    •  Association of American Law Schools, San Diego. ‘Digital Assets, Virtual Currencies, & UCC Reform’ (2023)

    •  The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York. ‘The Private Law of Stablecoins’ (2022)

    •  Baruch College, New York City. ‘The emerging private law framework for digital assets’ (2022)

    •  UNIDROIT, Rome. ‘Enforcement and Digital Assets: Rights of Secured Creditors’ (2022)

    •  Brooklyn Law School, New York City. ‘Commercial Law Harmonization: Past as Prologue’ (2022)

    •  American Bar Association, Business Law Section 2022 Spring Meeting, Atlanta. College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. ‘UCC and Emerging Technologies’ (2022)

    •  American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. ‘UCC and Emerging Technologies’ (2021)

    •  University of Wien. Vienna. ‘ULC/ALI Project on Digital Assets: Comparative observations’ (2021)

    •  UNIDROIT. Rome. ‘Model Law on Warehouse Receipts: Contractual Issues’ (2020)

    •  UNIDROIT. Rome. ‘Distributed Ledger Technology and international sales of commodities’ (2019)

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