A founder of Blank Rome’s blockchain technology and digital currencies practice has joined Crowell & Moring in New York, as Crowell seeks to grow its office there and to boost its tech-focused offerings.

Michelle Ann Gitlitz will lead Crowell & Moring’s global blockchain and digital assets practice, with firm leaders describing her as a key component of Crowell’s “digital transformation” practice—aimed at clients that are looking to get into artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles or, in Gitlitz’s case, blockchain.