ع
Baker McKenzie announced the appointment of Sebastian Dey as senior counsel to strengthen its financial regulatory capabilities with a focus on digital assets and emerging technologies. Dey previously served as head of digital assets for Linklaters Germany and part of the firm’s German Digital Economy Group where he built expertise across a range of structured finance and regulatory matters. The move aligns with Baker McKenzie’s ongoing lateral hiring strategy that has included multiple senior additions across tax, M&A and other practices in recent months according to the firm’s own releases.
Dey has worked at Linklaters since 2006 progressing from associate to managing associate counsel and then head of digital assets in 2022 according to the Linklaters website. He holds admissions as a lawyer in Germany and as a solicitor in England and Wales after earning a business law degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin in 2003 followed by postgraduate diplomas in English law and legal practice. His experience includes secondments to the firm’s Hong Kong and New York offices as well as on-site work at DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale in 2009.
Dey’s practice centers on distributed ledger technology solutions for traditional capital markets products and new DLT-native instruments involving issuance trading clearing settlement and custody the Linklaters profile states. He regularly advises global banks financial institutions asset managers insurers private equity firms central counterparties and corporations on German and English law covering cleared and uncleared OTC and exchange-traded derivatives including credit crypto foreign exchange interest rate and equity derivatives. Additional areas include repo and securities lending transactions Schuldscheindarlehen registered bonds hybrid instruments such as convertible and exchangeable bonds plus related regulatory topics.
The regulatory matters in Dey’s portfolio encompass EMIR CRR SRM-R BRRD SAG SFT-R CSD-R MiFID II MiFIR the EU DLT Pilot Regime and MiCAR according to his former firm’s assessment. This expertise arrives as financial services providers face ongoing implementation challenges from these frameworks that Baker McKenzie’s regulatory team has identified as key drivers of client demand in both established and emerging markets. The firm’s financial services regulatory practice offers strategic advisory compliance support regulatory dispute resolution and assistance with regulated transactions for banks insurers payments companies securities firms and asset managers.
Baker McKenzie has accelerated lateral growth in London and other offices with additions including a transfer pricing partner from Deloitte in late 2025 and various specialists in energy infrastructure restructuring and patent litigation per the firm’s announcements. Industry observers note that such hires reflect broader consolidation trends in the legal sector amid rising demand for specialized regulatory advice in digital finance. Dey’s arrival is expected to complement existing capabilities without further details released on his specific start date or reporting lines.
The appointment forms part of a pattern seen across global law firms that have targeted professionals with combined capital markets and fintech regulatory experience to address client needs in tokenized assets and crypto markets. Baker McKenzie’s existing financial regulatory offering emphasizes navigation of reform implementation cross-border inconsistencies and enforcement risks as outlined on the firm’s website. No additional terms of the hire were disclosed in the announcement.
