How Fintech Can Grow Your Practice
It may be tempting to brush off cryptocurrency as a temporary fad for tech geeks, especially as recent market volatility has given a beating to crypto valuations. But the core technology enables decentralized digital tracking of assets, ownership, and value. And this changes the game for asset discovery, liquidation rates, and the financial outcomes that matter to contingency-fee collection attorneys and their clients.
The financial technology (fintech) sector continues to evolve rapidly, with developments like crypto mining for new currencies, the blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and a host of other advancements. Meanwhile, law firms (especially those with contingency-fee practices) are often focused on the very financial assets, transactions, and outcomes that fintech advancements support. This means attorneys who are able to effectively understand and utilize these emerging technologies will be at an advantage marketing their legal practice to keep up with growing client expectations, discovering and liquidating new kinds of assets, and improving the financial outcomes of legal collection claims for both clients and attorneys.
Driving Value from Digital Assets
The foundation of digital asset valuation is the blockchain. In essence, blockchain technology is a distributed database, which stores transactional information in a digital format. The decentralization of the database means the transaction information resides in the public domain, with no single party able to make edits that aren’t also visible to others. This degree of visibility ensures reliable accountability.
Cryptocurrency is simply a digital form of money tracked on the blockchain. In the same way that one can manage a bank account online without ever handling cash, cryptocurrency is an asset that can be used digitally to make payments. It can also be bought and sold like foreign currencies, at an exchange rate that represents its relative value. What’s more, because the blockchain serves as a reliable public ledger of ownership transactions, asset discovery of cryptocurrency is a snap for those who know where to look.
But there are other types of digital assets than just the number of “coins” a defendant may own. NFTs, commonly works of digital art, continue to proliferate and in some cases sell for millions of dollars. Overlooking NFTs therefore runs the risk of accepting a lower settlement and contingency fee than a full asset discovery would justify. Thankfully, the blockchain publicly clarifies ownership of NFTs, including purchase price, so that these assets may also be included in calculations for claim liquidation amounts.
Keeping Up With Client Awareness
Clients are also increasing their awareness of cryptocurrency, and are looking for firms that have developed capabilities in digital asset discovery and liquidation. So just learning about fintech at your firm and becoming a whiz at crypto isn’t enough–you can’t just “build it and they will come.” Attorneys need to apply legal marketing resources to show up in the places where clients are looking, or that business will go to a competing firm.
Thankfully, the legal marketing experts at The National List of Attorneys (The NL) can help attorneys grow their practice. The NL’s networking database matches attorneys with clients’ legal claims across more than a hundred different variables, and one of them is now cryptocurrency capability. If your firm has developed capabilities in this fintech area, make sure to update your law firm profile on The NL website so browsing clients will be able to find you. Premier NL Advocate members should alert their account executive who will then use this capability to proactively pitch and promote your practice to clients.
Cryptocurrencies and other advances in financial technology add yet another option for contingency-fee attorneys seeking to maximize the financial outcomes of legal claims for themselves and their clients. And, like we’ve done for more than a century now, The NL is here to help you make the most of the opportunity.
How is your firm approaching cryptocurrency assets? Join the discussion in The NL Community Forum on LinkedIn and let us know!
About The National List of Attorneys (The NL)
The NL is the online B2B networking hub where premier contingency-fee attorneys connect and work with the business clients who need their help to get paid what they’re fairly due. We use claim performance data to provide the best legal referrals, advance the legal industry’s use of technology, and develop tailored client-focused strategies to maximize financial outcomes of legal claims.
Categories: NL Advocate, NL Insider
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