HLS BFI Lunch Panel

Anatomy of an IPO feat. Circle

March 24, 2026 12:15 – 1:15 PM WCC 1010

From confidential submission to opening bell, what really happens inside an IPO? In this conversation featuring Circle’s General Counsel and the capital markets lawyers and J.P. Morgan bankers who led the deal, we unpack the offering through the lens of the actual underwriters and legal team. The panel will explore disclosure strategy, diligence, liability risk, pricing dynamics, and what it means to transition into life as a public company.

This lunch event is part of the Harvard Law School Blockchain & FinTech Initiative’s lunch panel series, a student-focused program that brings together regulators, industry leaders, and academics to discuss emerging issues in financial technology and digital asset regulation. View our other events here.

Speakers

Sarah Wilson

General Counsel, Circle

Bio

Sarah is responsible for leading Circle’s legal function to progress the company’s vision and priorities across commercial and M&A transactions, regulatory and product initiatives, corporate governance, and litigation. Sarah honed her corporate legal practice at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP before transitioning in-house, most recently serving as the Chief Legal Officer of a PE-backed company.

Dan Gibbons

Partner, Capital Markets, Davis Polk

Bio

Dan represents corporate and financial institution clients in a wide variety of public and private capital-raising transactions, including IPOs, private placements and other equity raises; investment-grade, high-yield and convertible debt issuance; and various leveraged finance transactions. He also advises on strategic transactions, corporate governance, SEC reporting and securities law compliance. Dan’s transactional practice focuses on companies involved in fintech, digital assets and other innovative technologies. He also counsels clients including leading stablecoin issuers, trading platforms and asset managers on numerous digital asset matters, often advising on the securities law compliance of novel products and innovative financial technologies. In 2025, Dan was named a “Fintech MVP of the Year” by Law360. A crypto thought leader, he has spoken on panels at leading industry events and has participated as a guest lecturer on digital asset regulation at NYU School of Law.

Alaoui Zenere

Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, JP Morgan

Bio

TO BE UPDATED.

David Zaimberg

Executive Director, Investment Banking, JP Morgan

Bio

TO BE UPDATED.

Professor Allen Ferrell Moderator

Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law

Bio

Allen Ferrell is the Greenfield Professor of Securities Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty associate at the Kennedy School of Government, chairman of the Harvard Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, and a research associate at the European Corporate Governance Institute. He was previously on the Board of Economic Advisors to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a research fellow at FINRA, and a member of the ABA Task Force on Corporate Governance. He has written widely on capital market regulation, securities litigation and corporate governance. His representative publications include “Thirty years of shareholder rights and firm valuation” forthcoming in the Journal of Finance (with Martijn Cremers), “Forward-casting 10b-5 Damages: A Comparison to other Methods,” 37 Journal of Corporation Law 365 (with Atanu Saha) and “Mandated Disclosure and Stock Returns: Evidence from the Over-the-Counter Market,” 36 Journal of Legal Studies 1. He received his Ph.D in economics from MIT, his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his BA and MA from Brown University. He clerked for Judge Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.