Will City law firms join the Metaverse?
Where clients go, lawyers will surely follow…
From Google to Microsoft, a host a big names have already embraced the weird and wonderful world of the Metaverse. But what exactly is it?
Rather simplistically, it’s a digital platform which enables users from across the world to socialise, work and play with each other through virtual headsets. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has gone so far as hailing the Metaverse as the “successor to the mobile internet”.
Other more surprising names to enter the virtual world include McDonalds and PwC. The fast food giant has filed trademarks for a virtual restaurant that will deliver food online and in person, while the accountancy powerhouse’s Hong Kong arm recently snapped up real estate on blockchain-based virtual world The Sandbox.
So will law firms follow? Well one US outfit already has. Step forward Arent Fox, a Washington-based law firm which last week announced it had joined the Metaverse by acquiring a land site in Decentraland, a platform similar to The Sandbox where users can purchase virtual plots as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
“We understand that serving as go-to advisors on blockchain and digital asset business issues means playing a part in shaping this new frontier,” the firm’s chair Anthony V. Lupo said. “[We are] opening an office in the Metaverse because that’s where our clients are going.” And he’s not wrong. Arent Fox advised PwC in the acquisition of its own virtual plots.
But will City law firms join the Metaverse? Well, it’s probably safe to say: where clients go, their lawyers will surely follow…
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9 Comments
Meta-Bust
Jokes asides, the real world isn’t too bad you know.
Let’s appreciate what we can touch and feel instead of focusing on this techno-hell that technocrats are trying to build.
Also Legal Cheek, I beg you – PLEASE do not censor this comment, PLEASE 🙏
CozomoMedici
If the ride is more fly, then you must buy
When I have a Nandos I get medium usually. Sometimes I’ll get hot if I’m feeling adventurous. Anyone who gets lemon and herb or plain are children and should not be in law. Those heats are the Kormas of Nandos.
Looking forward to seeing Terry the middle aged Tax Partner figuring out how to put his VR headset on so he can have a meeting with his client.
Anonymous
Looking forward to seeing the hours you work and your pay packet compared to the hours Terry works and his pay packet. How is paying rent working out?
Terry’s overworked associate who has to put up with his dribble
Lol how did you take offence to that?
Soz boomer, the world is ours.
Make sure you keep an eye on that cleaner of yours – she’s stealing your pension!
Duh
It was ageist. Bigotry is not a pick and choose menu. But it seems like it is for you.
PS The world is not “yours”, the Boomers and the Gen X’s hold the capital and the Gen Z’s will have fair more tailwinds than the Millenials. You are stuck in the middle and the squeeze is going to be brutal.
31 year-old
Some of us are old enough to remember pre-rebrand Field Fisher Waterhouse’s presence on Second Life.
Anna
I was expecting this to be a William Holmes article.
No
It’s an unnecessary gimmick.
Comments are closed.