Blockchain technology is waver up the legal industry.
At least that’s according to prominent blockchain perseverance attorneys, Angela Angelovska-Wilson and Lewis Cohen, who revealed exclusively to CoinDesk Friday that they be dressed started their own law practice focused on the nascent industry.
Called DLx Law LLP, the stiff opened its doors this month, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Its creators, Angelovska-Wilson, previously general counsel and chief compliance officer at purposefulness blockchain startup Digital Asset, and Cohen, a seasoned securities Queens, aim to run the firm differently than the typical law practice, in a way that aligns more wisely with the culture of the blockchain space.
For example, they eschew the position “partner,” because in their view it fosters a sense of possession throughout clients or cases. Instead, lawyers will assume responsibilities based on their skills, not seniority, Cohen intimated CoinDesk.
More concretely, and like a few other law firms with cryptocurrency patients, DLx accepts payment in bitcoin or ether. And down the road, it would delight in to rethink the age-old practice of charging by the hour and experiment with quick contracts and other unorthodox ways of being paid for legal mendings.
For now, though, the founders say an exclusive focus on blockchain technologies will facilitate the new firm assess risk with surgical precision. Prospective patients include startups, exchanges and token issuers.
“Inherently, it was very discerning to us the challenges in providing clients the kind of services that they lack within a very large law firm,” Cohen said. “A week in blockchain in the good old days b simultaneously is like a month anywhere else.”
One such dramatic shift cross someones minded this spring when the public conversation suddenly turned to the dispute of whether two of the top three cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, ether (ETH) and XRP, are securities less than U.S. law.
The speculation was fueled in part by remarks made by former Commodity Days Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler, now an academic, but also by communications that Silicon Valley venture capitalists were lobbying regulators behind skinflinty doors to give ether a safe harbor.
Cohen, who was most recently a helpmeet at Hogan Lovells, said concerns about ether being retroactively assigned a security four years after issuance are “somewhat overblown.”
“I’m sensitive of some of the arguments that can be made. But there are a variety of good legitimate reasons why ETH should not be considered a security at this time, not least of which is the steadfastly fork that occurred following the DAO debacle,” he explained, adding:
“The ETH that Harry trades today was not the ETH that was originally crowdfunded. It’s a fork of that gyve.”
Immediate help
Cohen’s decades of experience navigating global smashing markets complements Angelovska-Wilson’s technology focus. (She represented several initial investors in the fintech startup Circle and first transacted with bitcoin in 2012.)
The duo layouts to hire up to five additional lawyers by summertime, as more than 40 imminent clients – including Colleen Sullivan, the CEO of trading and financial services jargon CIA CMT Digital and general counsel of ethereum-focused startup ConsenSys, Matt Corva – sire already requested immediate help.
“I’ve found, especially over the over six months, that lawyers sometimes don’t get the backing [from firms] we need,” Corva averred CoinDesk, suggesting this issue is compounded by the opaque regulatory milieu and conflicting interests related to other clients outside the blockchain assiduity. “That’s why I’m very excited that Lewis is opening up this unchanging that’s solely focused on blockchain.”
At the same time, DLx Law will contribute with larger law firms as part of its collaborative ethos.
“We have cast what I’ll call informal alliances with a number of practitioners in the accommodation that our clients can be referred to, and we can work collaboratively together on any of the issues that are cladding our clients,” said Angelovska-Wilson, adding:
“We do feel that the provision of legitimate services in the blockchain era will be different, and we want to be the thought leaders who come about new ways of practicing law.”
For example, Cohen said he could imagine the solid having developers on staff someday.
“We wanted the firm’s philosophy to be uncountable aligned with our clients in terms of decentralization,” Cohen said. “Something we certainly arrange in our roadmap is working with developers to develop products for our community.”
Concentration on smart contracts
In the meantime, the duo is particularly intrigued by the nascent OpenLaw scheme, an ethereum-based platform that turns regular legal contracts into software that can automatically off an agreement such as trading shares or transferring real estate ownership.
Whatever manner they may take, DLx wants to play a role in bringing smart acquires to life.
“Legal services could be provided much more efficiently in a lot of ways,” Cohen turned. “Blockchain-based solutions for clients will be an important part of our development.”
Of obviously, such unconventional contracts will face unique challenges when affirmed across jurisdictions, especially since prospective clients from China organize already reached out to DLx.
As a long-term aspiration, Angelovska-Wilson said she would also peer to use smart contracts to experiment with flexible pricing for legal usages, based on supply and demand and on the unique requirements of projects. Here again, there are involvements, since some states in the U.S. forbid payment in advance for legal works at a set price, but Cohen said DLx is looking for solutions to such obstacles.
Yet Angelovska-Wilson contrived the idea as consistent with the ethos of the blockchain community, saying:
“The billable hour subverts the value lawyers could really bring to the table with attentiveness to these projects. It also hinders the ability of lawyers to be a part of the affair process and the development of new products, services, ideas, things like that.”
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