Our 2020-2021 Team
Meet the students leading HLSBFI’s programming, community, and flagship annual conference, and the industry leaders who tirelessly support, advise, and mentor them.
HLSBFI is a student-run community at Harvard Law School focused on the legal, economic, and policy frontiers of blockchain and financial innovation. Our board organizes the Annual Conference, lunch panels, and networking programming throughout the academic year.
HLSBFI 2020-2021
Thomas Hopkins
Thomas is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School from Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to attending HLS, he worked as a tax associate for Grant Thornton. Thomas became interested in Blockchain and FinTech in early 2015, attending several nationwide Blockchain and FinTech conferences as a hobby, briefly mining altcoins on his laptop, and researching new legal applications for Blockchain technology.
Mandy Mengyu Li
Mandy is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. She graduated from the University of Chicago with Honors in Economics, and spent her 1L summer at the Office of the New York State Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau. At Harvard, Mandy is a pro bono startup advisor and a Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association’s Professional Development Committee. With prior experience in corporate banking and venture capital, Mandy is interested in exploring ways that law can foster and sustain FinTech innovations.
Stefan Lehnardt
Stefan is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. He is from Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2016, he married Heather Lehnardt. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2018 with degrees in Applied Physics and Russian. He has interests in Intellectual Property Law, especially patent law. He spent his 1L summer in Salt Lake City at Maschoff Brennan, a patent boutique. He spent his 2L summer again at Maschoff Brennan where he accepted a full-time offer.
John Calia
John is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School from New Jersey. He graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics in 2018. He spent his 1L summer with Protocol Labs in Washington, D.C., and his 2L summer (virtually) at Orrick’s Silicon Valley office with their Technology Companies Group.
Christian Lansang
Christian is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School from Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Science, Technology, and Society. Christian developed an interest in Blockchain during Bitcoin’s meteoric rise in value in 2017. He previously researched Venezuelan cryptocurrency development at the Brookings Institution and spent his 1L summer at Morgan Stanley.
Kayla Blaker
Kayla is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. She is from Peoria, Arizona. She graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ with a B.S. in Chemistry in 2016. She discovered her interest in Blockchain and FinTech through events with HLSBFI in previous years and knew she had to get involved. Kayla spent her 1L summer in Houston with Baker Botts’ intellectual property group, and she spent her 2L summer online with Cooley’s intellectual property litigation group. Kayla is also involved with the Harvard Video Game Law Association.
Nicholas Gambino
Nicholas is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. He graduated from the University of Georgia with honors in Music Composition and Technology. Prior to law school, Nick helped develop student and community based education initiatives as a member of the AmeriCorps. Nick’s interest in Blockchain and Fintech stems from his work with music technology, system design, and optimization. Nick spent his 1L-Summer with the Federal Tax Clinic at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center working on impact litigation research and direct client representation.
Reshma Lutfeali
Reshma is a fourth year JD/MBA candidate at HLS and HBS. She has interned on both the legal and business side of blockchain and fintech organizations and is interested in issues of custody and supply-chain tracking.
Maude Wilson
Maude is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. She is from Southampton, New York and graduated from Hamilton College in 2017. She spent her 1L summer in the Civil Division of the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
HLSBFI 2020–2021
Professor Howell Jackson | James S. Reid, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Howell Jackson is the James S. Reid, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. His research interests include financial regulation, consumer protection, international finance, and federal budget policy. Professor Jackson has served as a consultant to the United States Treasury Department, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. He also frequently consults with government agencies and congressional committees on issues related to financial regulation. From 2013 to 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Professor received his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University in 1982 and a B.A. from Brown University in 1976.
Professor Jose M. Martinez-Sierra | Jean Monnet ad personam Professor for the Study of European Union Law and Government
Jose M. Martinez-Sierra is Jean Monnet ad personam Professor for the Study of European Union Law and Government. Since 2012, he develops a number of teaching, research and administrative roles at Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard Law School. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and Faculty Associate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. Martinez-Sierra has served in a number of roles in international and national executive boards and advisory positions in education, research and innovation. He was an advisor to several Ministers responsible for Education and Universities. He served as General Director for International Relations in the Spanish Ministry of Education and General Director of the Agency for the Internationalization of Spanish Universities. He is a former President of the European Union High Level Group on Education and Training Policies and the EU Education Committee, a member of the OCDE Education Policy Committee and former president of the Bologna Follow-up Group. He was representative for Higher Education at UNESCO and senior member of the Fulbright Commission.
Marvin Ammori | General Counsel, Protocol Labs
Marvin Ammori is the General Counsel of Protocol Labs, a company focused on improving the internet and computing generally. Its projects include IPFS, Filecoin, Coinlist, and others. Mr. Ammori is best known for leading the most important, successful, and unlikely political victories determining the Internet’s future, overcoming “impossible odds” when others saw no path to victory. He represented Apple, Google, Dropbox, eBay, Automattic, Tumblr, Twitter, and others. From 2016-2017, he was general counsel of Virgin Hyperloop One, serving on the senior executive and business leadership team, helping the company to raise $180 million during his time there. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School.