About
Istari Legal provides fractional GC services to early-stage fintech companies. We specialize in building comprehensive legal and compliance functions from the ground up, translating complex financial regulations into actionable business strategies that support product innovation and growth. Our services include: Flow of funds and partner strategy: helping fintechs structure compliant funds flows and securing bank, BaaS, and PSP partnerships. Product counseling: collaborating with product and engineering teams to launch regulated financial products across payments, cards, lending, wallets, deposits, crypto, and stablecoins. Consumer protection & privacy: drafting compliant disclosures and building privacy and AI governance programs. Compliance and interim CCO: Designing and operationalizing audit-ready compliance programs. State and federal licensing: managing end-to-end license and charter application processes. Commercial transactions: drafting full contract suites and developing scalable commercial contracting playbooks to speed up sales. Strategic Corporate Matters: assisting startups with general corporate and employment matters, as well as outside counsel management for high-stakes matters. Our founder, Ashton Simmons, an experienced fintech general counsel that excels at translating complex regulations into actionable business strategy. She built the legal and compliance functions from the ground up at early-stage fintechs like Dots (YC S21, contractor payouts) and String (Web3 payments), and has high-growth experience at Adyen and Brex.
Practice Areas
Work
- General Counsel and Chief Compliance OfficerDots (YC W21)Oct 2024 - Dec 2025
- Senior Regulatory CounselStringJun 2022 - Jul 2023
Regulatory CounselAdyenFeb 2021 - Jun 2022
Education
- American University Washington College of LawJ.D.
- DePauw UniversityB.A.
