Cheyenne Lawyer Receives Wyoming State Bar’s Pro Bono Award for Community Service

September 15, 2020 - News Releases

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming State Bar is pleased to announce that Matthew D. Kaufman, an attorney from Cheyenne, has received the 2020 Pro Bono Award for Community Service. Dona Playton, fellow attorney, presented the award today during a small awards luncheon held in conjunction with the Bar’s Virtual Annual Meeting.

Kaufman has made significant contributions to and on behalf of the Wyoming legal community in several different ways and was recognized for his volunteer work at the University of Wyoming College of Law, specifically with the Entrepreneurship and Business Law Practicum. The mission of the practicum is to guide law students through the transactional practice of law while simultaneously providing legal serves to small businesses and start-ups around the state of Wyoming.

“Without Mr. Kaufman, I would not have had one of the best experiences of my time in law school,” said Sam Laffey, a recent graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law, who nominated Kaufman for the award.

As a partner with Hathaway & Kunz, Kaufman’s legal practice focuses on business, corporate, technology, capital formation, intellectual property protection, mergers and acquisitions.

With an advanced LL.M. degree in entrepreneurial law, Kaufman provides representation to entrepreneurs, start-ups and emerging companies, as well as established companies on complex transactions and strategies. Kaufman routinely represents and advises clients on matters such as: entity formations, financing and operational issues, intellectual property, regulatory compliance and contract matters. He is one of only a few attorneys in Wyoming actively representing clients in private placement securities matters, and recently co-lawyered Wyoming’s first ever equity-based crowdfunding campaign. Additionally, Kaufman is one of the only attorneys in Wyoming advising companies on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and token offerings.

Kaufman co-founded the Wyoming Entrepreneurs group that meets in Cheyenne, has a published academic article on developing entrepreneurship in Wyoming, and has also published various articles on topics such as crowd funding and the new blockchain/cryptocurrency industry. He is counsel to dozens of start-ups, emerging technology companies, and investment funds across Wyoming, is an active tech and real estate investor, and has been a guest speaker on topics such as capital raising, securities, blockchain, and legal issues surrounding start-ups in Wyoming. Kaufman was also formerly a co-founder and three-year Chairman of the Array School of Technology and Design, Wyoming’s first private coding school, before exiting through a sale of the company in 2018. His newest venture is becoming a partner with BXE Capital, a cryptocurrency investment fund, based in Denver, Colorado.

In addition to graduating from the University of Wyoming with a B.A. and J.D., Kaufman also has a graduate law degree (LLM) from the University of Colorado. He has been repeatedly selected as one of the Mountain States SuperLawyer “Rising Stars,” he has been selected multiple times by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 40 Under 40 for the State of Wyoming, has been selected by American Society of Legal Advocates as a Top 40 under 40 in Wyoming, and a National Trial Lawyers Top 100. Kaufman also serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Wyoming College of Law and is a graduate of Leadership Wyoming.

Kaufman was appointed in 2017 by Governor Matt Mead as the only attorney to serve on the statewide executive council of ENDOW (economically needed diversification options for Wyoming), which helped Wyoming develop a new economic diversification strategy. In 2018, he was also appointed by Governor Mead to additionally serve on the legislatively created Blockchain Taskforce, which he was reappointed to in 2019 by Governor Gordon. This past year, Kaufman was appointed by the Wyoming Supreme Court to serve on the Chancery Court Committee, tasked with standing up the newly created Chancery (business) court in Wyoming.