Interestingly, other Bar ethics boards similarly focus on the reasonableness of the fees, but provide a narrower permission slip to the firms and lawyers accepting virtual payment. Additionally, a lawyer who takes possession of a client’s cryptocurrency, either as an advance fee or in settlement of a client’s claims, must also take competent and reasonable security precautions to safeguard that property.” A lawyer who accepts cryptocurrency as an advance fee on services yet to be rendered, however, must ensure that the fee arrangement is reasonable, objectively fair to the client, and has been agreed to only after the client has been informed in writing of its implications and given the opportunity to seek independent counsel. “It is not unethical for a lawyer to accept cryptocurrency in lieu of more traditional forms of payment, so long as the fee is reasonable. In reflecting upon that need to protect the client from such volatility, the DC Bar concluded: The ethics czars, then, have to worry about an initially reasonable attorney fee suddenly morphing into an outrageous profiting at the expense of the unlucky or unsophisticated client. Even smaller periods of time, clearly evidenced in 20, permit wild swings in the valuation of cryptocurrency. On the ten-year anniversary of Hungry Hanyecz’s transaction, the Bitcoins were valued at just under $500 million. How volatile is it? Ask Laszlo Hanyecz, a now legendary figure who back in 2010 traded 10,000 bitcoins (at the time worth a fraction of a penny) for two Papa John’s pizzas. The ethical obligation to charge a reasonable fee is at least implicated when a virtual currency payment can translate into wildly different U.S. Like the other jurisdictions now permitting virtual currency payments, the DC opinion focuses heavily on transparency with the client over the volatility of crypto. The most recent moment of a Bar Association dipping a toe into murky cryptowater is the fairly recent ethics opinion issued by the DC Bar, following similar promulgations in North Carolina, Nebraska and New York City. As evidence of both legitimacy and the sluggishness of acceptance, several Bar Associations have weighed in with opinions on the ability of lawyers to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for legal services. Cryptocurrencies, such as the industry leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum, appear to be on the slow march towards popular acceptance as legitimate means of payment.
0 kommentar(er)
