Here’s the full press release
(March 30, 2026) — Ted Anastasiou, a strategic adviser to businesses ranging from VC-backed, early-stage startups to Fortune 500 multinational companies, is joining Harris Beach Murtha’s Corporate Practice Group and New York City office to help companies and high-profile individuals solve high-stakes business challenges.
Ted enters client relationships with the approach of a business partner. His career began in political and election law, and he founded a political technology company that served more than 600 clients in 43 states. His background helps him connect with the entrepreneurs and operator-owners he represents, allowing him to practice law from the perspective of a business operator. Earlier in his career, Ted served as an executive appointee at the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Ted will focus on serving mid-market business clients with complex corporate financing, mergers and acquisitions and related transactions work. Additionally, he’ll support the corporate needs of clients in the cannabis, entertainment and digital assets industries, among others. He is deeply experienced with complex regulatory frameworks, rapidly evolving market conditions and significant M&A and transactional activity. Ted serves as outside general counsel to several clients in a variety of industries, conducting complex corporate financing and related transactions work, and will regularly team with experienced attorneys across Harris Beach Murtha to advise on real estate, litigation, labor and employment and intellectual property matters.
“We are excited by what Ted brings to the Corporate team and the entire firm; his corporate experience and role as outside general counsel to numerous clients has resulted in long-term client relationships, and his network brings natural collaboration for real estate, employment and labor, litigation and intellectual property matters,” said Jeremy H. Speich, leader of the firm’s Corporate Practice Group. “With Ted joining the group, we can more fully support corporate and transactional services for the growing needs of our clients in New York City and on Long Island.”
Focus on Technology and Emerging Industries
Ted also advises companies and investment funds across the innovation economy, with a particular focus on serving as fractional general counsel — building the full legal stack for growth-stage businesses and providing the compliance infrastructure necessary to scale.
He brings deep experience to the digital assets industry, counseling Web3 infrastructure companies and blockchain-native businesses on tokenized asset transactions, product compliance, capital raises, governance, founder disputes and settlements, strategic partnerships, and navigating existing and anticipated federal, state and cross-border regulatory frameworks.
Beyond his digital asset practice, Ted serves as an embedded legal partner to AI-native businesses, venture capital funds and technology companies serving the medical, real estate, wellness and creator economy industries. Having advised startups through Seed and Series A financing rounds, he ensures that his clients’ strategic growth is supported by a forward-looking legal foundation capable of achieving their business objectives both quickly and efficiently.
Entertainment Industry Experience
Ted is active in the entertainment field, with client relationships across some of the most widely recognized names in the industries, including live event producers, household name artists, professional sports figures and fashion designers. His work spans intellectual property work, crisis communications, strategy, deal-making, brand licensing and experiential commerce, insurance coverage disputes, defamation matters and federal and state government investigations.
Ted also serves as fractional general counsel to widely recognized service providers from luxury automotive companies to specialty medical and dental practices, advising on commercial agreements, risk management, confidentiality and brand protection.
Ted’s work and profile have been covered by outlets ranging from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to TMZ, Complex, Rolling Stone, and People.
Cannabis Work Across the Nation
Ted carved a niche in the cannabis business helping operators grow to integrated, multi-site, mid-market enterprises by counseling on consolidation, brand licensing, supply chains, distribution and operations. He provides coordinated regulatory counsel across license types, sophisticated M&A deal structuring and compliance infrastructure that scales. He’s served as outside general counsel and regulatory advisor to more than 100 licensed operators in New York alone, in addition to investors and operators across California, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Vermont.
His work spans the full lifecycle of cannabis business operations: license applications, enforcement defense, commercial lease negotiation, equity and debt financing, partnership structuring and governance; employee and shareholder disputes; intellectual property strategy; go-to-market, growth and exit strategies; compliance and M&A transactions for dispensaries, cultivators, processors, distributors and brands.
