A US appeals court has ruled that an immutable smart contract is not 'property' and therefore not subject to sanction by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In an opinion piece, lawyer William O'Rorke (ORWL) explains why this decision is important, without overturning everything.
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William O'Rorke is a Partner at ORWL Avocats, where he leads the regulatory practice, focusing on crypto-asset regulation. He has advised clients in the crypto-finance sector for nearly a decade, with a practice centred on MiCA, MiFID, and DORA. His client base includes crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), payment and e-money institutions issuing stablecoins, banks, asset managers, and technology providers such as SaaS platforms, custodians-as-a-service, DeFi protocols, and layer-1/2 foundations. He co-founded ORWL Avocats, which was established in 2018.
O'Rorke co-authored Droit des crypto-actifs, published by LexisNexis, described as the reference textbook in the field. He lectures at the Paris Bar School (EFB) and at several master's programmes, and has taught at institutions including La Sorbonne, Assas, HEC, and Polytechnique. His team has been ranked "Highly Recommended" by Leaders League for four consecutive years and is listed in Chambers & Partners' FinTech rankings at Band 4. Separately, he serves as Board Member and Secretary of ADAN, a nonprofit representing Web3 actors in France and Europe, where he contributes to EU-level discussions on crypto regulation. He has also participated in working groups with Medef, France Stratégie, and Finance Innovation. He studied at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
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