JULY 21, 2025 – Anthony Valenzuela, former senior counsel at Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley, and former general counsel for one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has joined Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as a partner in San Francisco.
Valenzuela is a proven leader with extensive experience in securities litigation, arbitration, commercial litigation, and regulatory matters. He has first-chaired more than 40 securities arbitrations to verdict, achieving a claimants' recovery rate of less than 4 percent of alleged damages, and managed hundreds of commercial litigation matters, class actions, employment cases, and prelitigation disputes. Most recently, he served as general counsel to OKX, the global affiliate of OKCoin USA, Inc., where he provided substantive legal counsel to the company's business leaders and led a global legal department of more than 60 attorneys and legal professionals.
"Tony's arrival is a significant milestone in our strategic plan," said Andrew Melnick, New York-based co-chair of the financial services practice at DWT. "He enhances our West Coast capabilities in financial services litigation and securities enforcement while adding depth to our expertise in digital assets. He's a seasoned first chair trial attorney, has tremendous proficiency in regulatory issues, and keenly understands how legal counsel can help advance business goals in a fast-changing industry. We're thrilled to have him."
"Our San Francisco office is on a significant growth trajectory," said Vidhya Prabhakaran, DWT's San Francisco partner-in-charge. "With seven new lateral partners in the past year, we're advancing in multiple areas of strategic focus, including energy, food and beverage, white collar defense, and now financial services litigation. Tony is going to be a terrific catalyst for our continued expansion in this dynamic market, where we already serve so many financial institutions, fintechs, and crypto innovators."
As managing director and associate general counsel at Charles Schwab for nearly a decade, Valenzuela was lead in-house counsel for federal and state regulatory and enforcement actions, including the DOJ's antitrust investigation into Schwab's acquisition of TD Ameritrade in 2020. He also handled high-stakes arbitrations and class actions, including in partnership with outside counsel. Prior to Schwab, Valenzuela spent 6 1/2 years at Morgan Stanley, where he served as lead trial counsel in all stages of the FINRA arbitration process and handled internal investigations and employment disputes on behalf of the company.
At OKX, the third-largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume, Valenzuela grew the global legal team from 3 to 35 attorneys in three years and supported every aspect of the company's worldwide digital assets business.
Andrew Lorentz, Washington, D.C.-based co-chair of the DWT financial services practice, said: "With more and more of our established financial services and fintech clients beginning to offer access to crypto/digital assets for payments and trading, Tony's experience on the front lines of virtually every issue faced by crypto exchanges over the past few years will be invaluable."
Valenzuela began his legal career as a litigator at three Bay Area law firms. He received his J.D. at University of Southern California Law School and his B.A. at University of California, Berkeley.
"Over the past decade, DWT has built one of the country's preeminent financial services teams," said Valenzuela. "The group's breadth of expertise, stellar roster of clients, and—most of all—collaborative, entrepreneurial approach to the work, all combine to make this a uniquely attractive platform as I return to private practice. I've known a number of DWT lawyers for years as industry colleagues, and retained them as outside counsel, and am now delighted to be able to partner with them to help drive our clients' success."
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm with more than 600 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. The firm's financial services team has been recognized as a national leader by ranking organizations that include Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and Legal 500. Learn more at www.dwt.com.