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Edmund P. Daley

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[email protected]

+1.617.348.4921

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Ed brings a creative, solutions-oriented approach to helping clients achieve their goals. He represents companies, financial institutions, and individuals in high-stakes litigation, government investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, and criminal trials. Whether the challenge demands aggressive trial advocacy, strategic engagement with federal regulators, careful appellate positioning, or discreet counseling through an internal investigation, Ed delivers results.

Ed’s practice sits at the intersection of financial services, government enforcement, and emerging technology. Drawing on a cross-disciplinary practice, he delivers comprehensive guidance tailored to his client’s complex challenges. As a member of Mintz’s FinTech, Blockchain, and Digital Assets practice and the firm’s Appellate Practice Group, Ed counsels a diverse client base — from multinational financial institutions to digital asset platforms to individual executives. He has substantial experience appearing before the SEC, DOJ, FINRA, and state securities regulators, enabling him to deliver pragmatic strategies tailored to each client’s business objectives and reputational concerns.

Financial Services Litigation

Ed represents a wide variety of financial services institutions — including banks, broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, mutual fund firms, and insurance companies — as well as their employees, directors, and officers. He handles litigation, arbitration, regulatory proceedings, and compliance matters. Ed specializes in counseling registered representatives, financial advisors, and firms in connection with recruiting and transitions — one of the most active and strategically complex areas of the financial services market. This breadth of representation gives Ed an uncommon vantage point: he understands the playbook from every angle and can anticipate the opposing party’s strategy with precision.

White Collar Criminal Defense & Regulatory Enforcement

Ed defends companies, executives, and individuals under investigation or prosecution by federal and state enforcement and regulatory authorities. He has particular depth in high-stakes financial crime matters, including insider trading and market manipulation. Ed also conducts sensitive internal investigations designed to help clients strengthen compliance programs, remediate regulatory vulnerabilities, and position themselves favorably in negotiations with regulators. 

His philosophy is simple: for many clients, the most successful outcomes are the ones that don’t make the headlines. Ed’s extensive experience guiding clients through regulatory scrutiny by the Massachusetts Securities Division and other state and federal regulators equips him to serve as a strategic counselor long before a matter reaches the courtroom.

Appellate Practice & Election Law

Ed is an accomplished appellate advocate who frequently argues before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He handles constitutional challenges, administrative law disputes, complex commercial matters, and regulatory questions. Ed advises clients on all aspects of appellate strategy, including evaluating whether to appeal, framing dispositive issues, briefing, and oral argument. He regularly works with trial teams to preserve appellate issues at the earliest stages of litigation.

Ed also specializes in constitutional law, election law, and ballot initiatives under Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution. He has guided clients through every stage of this unique process – from pre-filing strategy and Attorney General certification proceedings to constitutional challenges before the Supreme Judicial Court. Most recently, Ed successfully challenged the proposed rent control ballot question in Cella v. Attorney General (SJC-13893, June 23, 2026), blocking the initiative from the November 2026 ballot. This expertise is available to clients on either side: parties seeking to challenge a petition on constitutional grounds, and groups seeking to support an initiative and defend it against judicial challenge.

Digital Assets & Cryptocurrency

As a Member in Mintz’s FinTech, Blockchain, and Digital Assets Practice, Ed counsels technology companies, digital currency issuers, private equity and venture capital firms, and individuals navigating the intersection of financial regulation and distributed-ledger technology.

He advises on the regulatory classification of tokens and digital instruments, defends clients in SEC and state enforcement actions involving digital assets, and helps emerging platforms build compliance architectures that anticipate regulatory expectations. Ed’s white collar defense experience and deep familiarity with evolving federal enforcement postures make him a trusted advisor to crypto-native clients.

Prior to joining Mintz, Ed served as a law clerk to the Honorable David A. Lowy of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, assisting him with legal research and the drafting of opinions. Ed also served as a law clerk to then Chief Justice Scott L. Kafker and the Honorable Janis M. Berry of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. After graduating law school, Ed was a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

Experience

  • Rent Control Ballot Initiative Challenge. Successfully challenged Initiative Petition 25-21 before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Cella v. Attorney General (SJC-13893, decided June 23, 2026). The court agreed with Ed’s argument that the petition was constitutionally barred under Article 48 because its express religious exemption made religion a factor in the petition’s application. The decision preserved the statewide prohibition on rent regulation. (Oral argument).
  • Memecoin SEC Enforcement Defense Victory. Successfully defended the creators of a memecoin in an SEC enforcement investigation. Persuaded the SEC to close its investigation and decline to file an enforcement action by demonstrating that the memecoin did not constitute a security.
  • $30+ Million Fraud Scheme — CFO Defense. Represented the CFO charged in a $30+ million fraud scheme and secured a disposition substantially more favorable than the Federal Sentencing Guidelines recommended. The sentencing judge remarked that he was “frankly surprised that [CFO’s] counsel was able to negotiate such a favorable agreement.”
  • No Jail Time for Serious Charges. Successfully argued at sentencing for no jail time for a client charged with serious drug distribution crimes who was facing more than 20 years in prison.
  • College Admissions Prosecution. Secured an acquittal after trial for a parent charged in the college admissions prosecution.
  • DOJ Investigation — Registered Investment Adviser. Successfully represented a Registered Investment Adviser in a DOJ investigation.
  • Appellate Reversal for Multinational Insurer. Guided appellate strategy and briefing resulting in a rare reversal of summary judgment in the Massachusetts Appeals Court on behalf of a major multinational insurer. The case involved $30 million in liability claims related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act exclusion and regulatory disclosure requirements.
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viewpoints

DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts signal aggressive PPP and government program fraud enforcement. What can companies and decisionmakers do now.    

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The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts recently unsealed what it described as the “first-ever criminal charges against financial services firms for market manipulation and ‘wash trading’ in the cryptocurrency industry.” 

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In a widely anticipated decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld the Massachusetts Fiduciary Duty Rule, which imposes a fiduciary duty standard on Massachusetts broker-dealers.
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Read more about how Mintz's attorneys Andrew Nathanson, Katharine Foote, Danielle Dillon, and Edmund Daley advocated for victims rights and privacy during a complex criminal case.

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Just barely two weeks ago, we wrote about the half-victory for Ripple Labs in its ongoing litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in which Judge Analisa Torres granted partial summary judgment in favor of Ripple on the issue of whether certain sales of Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency tokens were “securities” under the federal securities laws. Some in the crypto industry interpreted her ruling to mean that secondary transactions in crypto assets on centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges were not transactions in “securities,” even though Judge Torres expressly declined to address the secondary trading issue. Fast forward to today, and a new ruling out of the SDNY against Terraform Labs casts further doubt on this interpretation.

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At the American Bar Association’s 38th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, Department of Justice (“DOJ”) officials announced multiple significant policy updates regarding corporate compliance.

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News & Press

News Thumbnail Mintz

Elissa Flynn-Poppey and Edmund Daley discussed with Law.com the legal strategy behind their successful challenge to a proposed Massachusetts rent control ballot initiative. Their argument that the measure's religious exemption violated Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution ultimately led to the initiative's removal from the November 2026 ballot.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

Mintz is pleased to announce that 120 firm attorneys have been recognized as leaders by Best Lawyers® in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©.

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Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch – Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: White-Collar (2022 – 2026) 

  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Rising Star – Criminal Defense: White Collar (2022 – 2025)

  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Rising Star – Business Litigation (2019 – 2021)

  • Boston Magazine: Top Lawyers – Commercial Litigation (2022 – 2024)

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Involvement

  • Committee Member, Supreme Judicial Court Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law (2015 – present)
  • Member, Boston Bar Association
  • Member, Massachusetts Bar Association
  • Member, New Hampshire Bar Association
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