Joe Cutler

Practice Areas

Fintech & Payments

Blockchain & Digital Assets

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Technology Transactions & Privacy Law

Consumer Protection

Litigation

Intellectual Property Law

Privacy & Security

Financial Transactions

Privacy Counseling and Compliance

Privacy Regulatory Investigations & Enforcement

Data Security Counseling and Breach Response

Career

Joe Cutler helps evaluate the regulatory exposure and compliance paths for emerging distributed ledger technology companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, and token-based projects. He provides guidance related to financial services, principally those involving money transmission, exchange, and emerging payment solutions. Joe also helps companies obtain state money transmission licenses, register with Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as money services businesses, draft and implement anti-money laundering programs, and comply with state and federal financial privacy laws. His litigation work focuses on combating cybercrime and enforcing website terms of use.

Outside the financial services space, Joe counsels clients on compliance with state and federal privacy and data protection laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act; anti-spamming and anti-phishing statutes; computer intrusion laws; state data protection and breach notification laws; international data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation; and credit protection laws, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act. He helps companies develop and implement information governance programs, counseling on financial services regulatory issues involving the Bank Secrecy Act, FinCEN, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements, and state money transmission.

Blockchain. A leader in the blockchain space, Joe represented Washington state’s first licensed bitcoin company, CoinMe, and first cryptocurrency point-of-sale solution for the cannabis industry. He is working with cryptocurrency exchanges to obtain their money transmitter licenses and formalize the requisite internal governance to operate in the United States. Joe counseled 15 U.S. representatives and senators on ways to integrate blockchain technology into government functions to reduce bureaucracy and testified before Washington State House and Senate legislative committees considering legislation related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Joe also represented clients under threat of enforcement by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions.

Enforcement. Joe has a long history of working with social media companies. When security threats emerge, Joe manages a rapid response enforcement team to defend clients, such as Facebook, against illegal spamming, phishing, pretexting, and other forms of malicious internet behavior. He provides consumer protection compliance advice to companies regarding their obligations under the FCRA and fair debt collections practices statutes, primarily focusing on the protection and safeguarding of customer personal data.

Privacy. Joe has extensive experience in international data transfer laws, helping companies that want to transfer data across international boundaries to do so in compliance with transnational regulations. He also advises clients regarding the operation of Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower programs in the EU and conducting U.S.-based litigation discovery in the EU. He joined the U.S. Department of Commerce's EU Privacy Shield certification program and counsels clients on compliance with EU directives on privacy, data protection, e-commerce, and electronic communications services. He also provides advice to companies regarding compliance with U.S. sanctions programs.

Pro bono work is central to Joe's practice, emphasizing refugee/asylum law and representing asylum-seekers at all levels of the immigration process. He also represented an inmate from the King County Regional Justice Center in a challenge to its medical treatment policies and procedures.