Dr Joseph Lee is a Reader in Corporate and Financial law at the University of Manchester School of Law. He was a senior lecturer in corporate and commercial law at the University of Exeter UK and assistant professor of law at the University of Nottingham UK, which he joined immediately after the completion of his PhD at the University of London.

He is the founding programme director of the Manchester Online LLM in International Commercial and Technology Law.  He is the author of Crypto-Finance, Law and Regulation: Governing an Emerging Ecosystem (2021) and the editor of several influential books including Web3 Governance: Law and Policy (2025); A Research Agenda for Financial Law and Regulation (2025); and Data Governance in AI, FinTech and LegalTech: Law and Regulation in the Financial Sector (2022).

He is the Research Director for Digital Technology, Crime and the Law at the Centre for Digital Trust and Society at the University of Manchester. Dr Lee leads cutting-edge research on the intersection of commercial law and emerging technologies. He has been the principal investigator of research projects funded by the UKRI, the British Academy and the British Council. He has held visiting positions at prestigious institutions including at Bocconi University, KU Leuven, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Liège, National Taiwan University and Tokyo University. He serves on the advisory board of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence AI-2-TRACE-CRIME, at Neapolis University Pafos. He is the convener of the Digital Technology, Crime and the Law Conference 2025.

Simon Hawkins is a partner in the Hong Kong office of Latham & Watkins and advises on a range of regulatory matters and transactions. He leads the firm’s Financial Regulatory practice in Asia and is a co-chair of the firm’s Digital Assets & Web3 Practice. He is an experienced and trusted advisor to a full range of financial industry and fintech clients — from traditional commercial and investment banks, private equity firms, broker/dealers, and insurers to innovative fintech companies, including payments companies, crypto exchanges and custodians, token issuers, and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.

Simon provides confident and seasoned regulatory advice and transactional support to clients doing inbound and outbound business in Hong Kong. As an early mover in the fintech industry in Asia, he provides insight and skilled judgment on the dynamic fintech industry and rapidly evolving crypto regulatory landscape.