At the recently held ILTACON trade show, the keynote speaker advised the law firm’s amassed technology talents that the most important thing their firms should do is invest in the development of NFTs. It was at this point that I signaled the rest of the legal-tech press the drinking game rules for that mention: “NFTs! Everyone swallows bleach.”
It’s not that NFTs are stupid, it’s that they’re incredibly stupid.
This is fair. Very few people understand it. But not in the way “very few people understand it like quantum physics”. More in the way that “very few people get it the way Logan Paul is famous for.”
For the record, the number one thing law firms should be doing right now is not developing NFTs.
But lawyers need to understand them, if only to get through the next few years as Twits file 10,000 lawsuits over fake Diamond NFTs or think they own Dune because they happen to be gullible brands with big bank accounts.
Herbert Smith Freehills offers a series of free workshops for aspiring attorneys on cutting-edge technical topics, including NFTs.
According to LegalCheek:
According to HSF, one of the sessions will be streamed live from the Metaverse (a 3D virtual world where individuals can interact with each other) to bring these timely issues to life. As if that weren’t enough, course completion certificates are transmitted as NFTs to participants after they’ve been shown how to “mint” them (the process of converting a digital file into a digital asset stored on the blockchain).
The NFT certificate is a fun little souvenir. I assume it’s a bored monkey reading the bluebook.
Seriously, just because a new technology seems impractical (like the current iteration of the metaverse) or stupid (NFTs) doesn’t mean those technologies won’t have a lot of legal work to do. And over a long enough period, some technologies will have a broad cultural impact. The metaverse may have been the chatroom of the damned so far, but I suspect it’s like a penny-farthing bike and we’ll look back at it and wonder what made someone build it that way.
Digital lawyers who know these things can make a lot of money.
And by “a lot of money” I mean “cash”, not crypto. Because lawyers know better.
The HSF embraces the Metaverse with a new digital law course for students [LegalCheek]
Earlier: First Biglaw firm to buy serious property in the Metaverse
Joe Patrice is Senior Editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email tips, questions or comments. Keep following him Twitter if you are interested in law, politics and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe is also the Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
