Ian R. Cohen

Ian R. Cohen is the founder and principal of IRC Legal, a New York-based boutique law firm providing fractional General Counsel services, strategic corporate counsel, and executive personal legal services to founders, executives, and the companies they build.

Ian brings a perspective that comes from having been on both sides of the table. He spent nearly a decade in BigLaw in New York City at Schulte, Roth & Zabel and BakerHostetler, advising on high-stakes M&A and securities matters, before serving as full-time General Counsel for two high-growth tech companies. That dual experience gives clients something most advisors cannot offer: the technical rigor of elite outside counsel combined with the operational judgment of an executive who has sat in the GC seat, attended the leadership meetings, and made consequential decisions under pressure.

Beyond his corporate practice, Ian is recognized in the Bitcoin and digital asset industry as "Bitcoin Lawyer Guy." He advises companies, investors, and executives on Bitcoin legal strategy, digital asset regulation, crypto M&A, and tokenized asset structures, bringing the same transactional depth to the digital asset space that he applies to traditional corporate work.

Ian has guided companies through every major financial milestone: Seed through Series C financings, SPAC and other public market transactions, tender offers, and complex mergers and acquisitions, including two billion-dollar PE-backed exits. His role extends beyond transactions. He embeds within organizations to ensure legal strategy moves at the speed of growth, aligning closely with business priorities and commercial goals. He also works with individual founders and executives on the personal legal matters that come with building something significant: equity arrangements, employment agreements, non-competes, board matters, and personal investment structures.

His core value to clients is clarity. He focuses teams on what materially matters, eliminates friction between legal, operations, and revenue functions, and builds scalable processes that enable confident execution. Every matter at IRC Legal is handled by Ian personally. No associates. No delegation.

Representative Transactions

M&A and Exits

• $1 billion sale of PE-backed telecom company
• $1 billion sale of PE-backed government contracting business
• Minority and majority investments
• Joint ventures, partnerships, and fund formation

Financings

• Series A, B, and C financing rounds ($50 million to $300 million)
• Seed financing rounds ($10 million to $50 million)
• SAFE note and convertible note financing rounds
• Going public transactions, including SPAC transactions
• Tender offers

Operational and Commercial

• Hundreds of commercial agreements across technology, SaaS, ecommerce, retail, logistics, B2B, and B2C
• Licensing and lease agreements
• Entity formations
• Dispute resolution

Education

Hofstra University - School of Law, JD

University of Maryland - College Park, BA