Michael Rosselli

About

I am the founder of Marathon Counsel PLLC, a solo fractional general counsel and regulatory advisory practice serving fintech, digital asset, and growth-stage technology companies. I am licensed in Illinois and work with founders and companies from pre-seed through Series B, as well as regulated entities including broker-dealers, DCMs, MSBs, custodians, registered investment advisers, and money transmitter license applicants. My practice has two integrated tracks. The first is embedded fractional GC work: corporate, commercial, employment, equity, and governance matters handled as an outsourced in-house function rather than transactional one-offs. The second is financial regulatory advisory: SEC, FINRA, and CFTC registration pathways; state money transmitter licensing; BSA/AML and FinCEN MSB analysis; broker-dealer and ATS questions; digital asset and token classification; and custody and 401k/IRA structuring. What distinguishes the firm is its model. I work on fixed-fee and subscription pricing rather than hourly billing, which aligns my incentives with clients building toward defined milestones and gives them budget certainty on recurring regulatory and corporate needs. I use technology for internal leverage and efficiency, but I position the firm as counsel, not as a self-service legal product, and I treat human verification of any regulatory analysis as non-negotiable. My background bridges practical corporate lawyering and the specialized regulatory questions that fintech and digital asset companies face earliest and most acutely. I am drawn to clients operating in genuinely novel or unsettled areas, where the value is in mapping a defensible path forward rather than applying a settled template.

Practice Areas

Services

• Fractional General Counsel

  Ongoing outsourced in-house counsel for fintech and growth-stage technology companies. A fixed monthly subscription covering day-to-day corporate, commercial, employment, and governance matters including contract review, vendor and customer agreements, board and equity questions, and the recurring legal needs of a scaling company, handled as an embedded function rather than one-off projects.
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• Commercial Contract Drafting & Negotiation

  Drafting, review, and negotiation of commercial agreements including MSAs, SaaS and subscription terms, NDAs, vendor and customer contracts, data-sharing and reseller agreements. You receive negotiated, signature-ready documents with a clear summary of risk and negotiation positions.
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• Startup Formation & Corporate Governance

  Entity formation and governance setup for founders from pre-seed through Series B -- entity selection and formation, founder and operating agreements, board and corporate governance structure, and a clean corporate record ready for diligence and fundraising.
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Work

• 
  Compliance Officer and US Counsel

  Da Vinci Trading

  Jun 2025 - Mar 2026
• 
  Senior Attorney

  R.J. O'Brien

  Sep 2022 - May 2025
• 
  Compliance Associate

  PEAK6

  Apr 2021 - Sep 2022

Education

• University of Florida Levin College of Law
  J.D. • 2019
• University of Florida
  BA - Philosophy • 2016