Wulf Kaal is a leading expert at the intersection of law, business, and technology. His research focuses on innovation, technology, emerging technology applications, smart contracts, initial coin offerings, hedge funds, and dynamic regulatory methods. Before entering the academy, he was associated with Cravath, Swain & Moore LLP, in New York, and Goldman Sachs in London, UK. Kaal advises medium to large enterprises, crypto startups, venture capital funds, and international policy makers on emerging technology solutions. As an adviser and mentor, Kaal focuses on creating synergies for his clients and building successful new businesses, among others, on existing solutions. Professor Kaal speaks regularly at leading conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His speaking engagements include presentations at the European Central Bank, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, UCLA, George Washington University, Northwestern University, Emory University, and the University of Notre Dame, Bocconi University, and Tilburg University, among many others. Kaal teaches Disruptive Innovation, Coding for Lawyers, Dynamic Regulation, Private Investment Funds, Federal Securities Regulation, Corporate Law, International Finance, and European Union Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in downtown Minneapolis. He has previously taught at the University of Minnesota Law School, Humboldt University in Berlin Germany, European Business School in Wiesbaden Germany, and Tilburg University Law School in the Netherland. Kaal is a leading expert and the most widely published proponent of blockchain innovation in law and corporate governance as well as dynamic regulation and associated regulatory applications to improve and expand innovation, including through blockchain technology and smart contracting. His empirical and theoretical scholarship in this context evaluates the evolution of law, regulation of disruptive innovation, the diminishing capacities of the regulatory infrastructure, the role of governmental contracts, the dynamic regulatory approaches for the financial services, the diminishing relationship between regulation and innovation, and the so-called ‘pacing problem’ between innovation and regulation, among many others issues. Possible dynamic regulatory mechanisms evaluated in Professor Kaal’s scholarship on dynamic regulation include blockchain technology, big data, contingent capital securities, governmental contracts, venture capitalist investment allocation, and crowdfunding. Kaal is also a leading expert on private investment fund regulation and compliance and private investment fund innovation in finance. His scholarship constitutes over 85% of the empirical and theoretical scholarship on private fund regulation in the United States. Using hand-selected and commercial databases that have industry-wide application, Professor Kaal applies empirical methods to investigate the effects of financial regulation across a wide spectrum of regulatory issues. His theoretical research focuses on the use of finance and economic theory to analyze and inform financial and regulatory policy. Kaal’s study on the effects of hedge fund registration requirements under Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Act has gained national attention and was covered in a Business Week article and other journals. As a consultant, Kaal assists clients with blockchain based projects including initial coin offerings. He regularly advises major corporations and private funds regarding various aspects of financial markets. He also assists law firms in complex litigation involving private investment funds and alternative investments. Expert witness and consulting engagements within Kaal’s area of expertise include corporate law, federal securities regulation, fiduciary duties, voting requirements, conduct and duties of board of directors, insider trading, duties and obligations of broker-dealers and investment advisers, SEC oversight of investment advisers, compliance of private investment funds, among others. He is also a FINRA arbitrator.
