Biglaw Firm offers NFTs to lawyers who complete their metaverse course in experiment to shove as many buzzwords into a title

by James · September 26, 2022

Blue female cyber with neon pink META VERSE LOADER text glasses on geometric dark background At the recent ILTACON show, the keynote speaker advised the assembled law firm tech talent that the most important thing their firms should do is invest in developing NFTs. At the time, I signaled to the rest of the legal tech press the drinking game rules for that mention: “NFTs! Everyone’s chugging bleach.”

It’s not that NFTs are stupid, it’s that they’re incredibly stupid.

If you make an NFT from a real diamond, and the diamond itself is destroyed in a fire tomorrow, you still have the same resource.

Because the token still exists and is limited available just like before. Nothing has changed.

Few people understand what NFT does with the term asset.

— Tascha (@TaschaLabs) 22 August 2021

This is fair. Very few people understand that. But not in the “very few people understand it as quantum physics” way. More in the “very few people understand that Logan Paul is famous” way.

For the record, the most important thing law firms should be doing right now is not developing NFTs.

But lawyers need to understand them, if only to survive the next few years of twits filing 10K lawsuits over fake diamond NFTs or thinking 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 lawyers on cutting-edge technical topics, including NFTs.

Per LegalCheek:

HSF says one of the sessions will be streamed live from the metaverse (a 3D virtual world where individuals can interact with each other) in an effort to bring these current issues to life. If that wasn’t enough, course completion certificates will be transferred to participants as NFTs after they have been shown how to “coin” 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 guess it’s a bored monkey reading the Bluebook.

In all seriousness, just because a piece of emerging technology seems impractical (like the current iteration of the metaverse) or stupid (NFT), doesn’t mean those technologies won’t create a lot of legal work. And over a long enough timeline, any technology will have a broad cultural impact. The metaverse may be the chatroom of the damned so far, but I suspect it’s like a penny farthing bicycle, and we’ll look back on it and wonder what made someone build it that way.

There is a lot of money to be made by digital lawyers who understand this.

And by “lots of money” I mean “cash” not crypto. Because lawyers know better.

HSF embraces the metaverse with a new digital law course for students [LegalCheek]

Previously: First Biglaw firm to buy serious real estate in the Metaverse

Head shot Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to send an e-mail with tips, questions or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.