Smart contract: French court issues ground-breaking ruling

Hubert de Vauplane is a Partner, Financial Services at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, advising clients on EU and French banking and investment services law, regulatory matters, asset management and funds, insurance investment regulations, financial and securities litigation, e-money and payment services, and financial institution mergers and acquisitions. He provides legal counsel on fintech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency assets, and is authorized before the French Financial Market Supervisory Authority (AMF), the European Commission, and the European Central Bank. He chairs the FinTech section at Paris Europlace and is a member of the Legal High Committee for Financial Markets of Paris. He also holds membership in the Panel of Recognized International Markets Experts in Finance (PRIME) and previously served on the Financial Markets Law Committee in London from 2012 to 2019.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis in January 2025, de Vauplane co-led the alternative investment management practice in the Paris office of another law firm. Earlier in his career, he served as Group General Counsel, Legal and Compliance at Crédit Agricole from January 2009, and before that as Global Legal Director of Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank from 2007. He previously held the position of Legal Director for Corporate & Investment Banking at BNP Paribas from 2002. Earlier roles included seven years at stockbroker Oddo & Cie, first as a derivatives trader and then as head of the legal department, and a position at Banques Populaires as a financial lawyer. He is a professor of international banking and financial law at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences. Since 2001, he has written the "La finance décryptée par le droit" blog in Alternatives Économiques and contributes regularly to the Revue Banque. His book Traité de droit des marchés financiers received an award from the French Academy of Political Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in law from Université de Paris II Panthéon-Assas (1991).