
A Short & Happy Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain and Crypto
By: Professor Del Wright Jr.
Professor Wright is a law professor at UMKC Law School, where he teaches in the areas of finance, business, securities, blockchain & crypto, and tax. He joined the UMKC faculty in 2017, and serves as the Director of the UMKC Law China Program. His current research focuses on the regulation of blockchain technologies, as well as Chinese financial law and institutions.
Prof. Wright is the author of A Short & Happy Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Crypto (West Academic), which was published in 2020. He is currently writing Crypto & Blockchain Law in a Nutshell (West Academic), which will be published in 2021, and a few other law books on crypto. His scholarship has explored the intersection of tax, finance, and crypto, and he has had articles published in the Virginia Tax Journal, the Akron Law Review, the Arizona State Law Journal and BNA.
Before starting his career, Prof. Wright earned a Master's in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School, focusing on financial policy and regulation, a Juris Doctor from The Law School at the University of Chicago (the capital "T" is their idea), and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from the University of Maryland. Prior to academia, Prof. Wright served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, focusing on tax, white collar and organized crime. As a prosecutor, he secured convictions in all his cases. He has also worked:
* as an attorney with Skadden Arps, where he worked in both the banking and tax groups,
* with other firms, where he focused on business and tax issues, including representing clients before the U.S. Tax Court, with amounts in controversy over $1 billion, and
* as an investment banker, most recently with Bank of America, structuring derivatives and other so-called financial weapons of mass destruction (the good kind).
In his free time, Prof. studies Mandarin and Spanish, trains for grueling endurance sports (when he is not injured), referees, and plays tennis and golf. He is also an ardent supporter (culé) of the best fútbol team on the planet, F.C. Barçelona and a former reservist with the U.S. Marine Corp - Ooh-Rah.
A big thank you to Brian Ross from Edward Jones Investment for bringing Professor Wright to speak to us on the topic of Crypto Currency.