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ARTICLE · 14 DECEMBER 2017

Billable Bitcoins: Why It Pays For Lawyers To Accept Cryptocurrency

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With bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies reaching shocking new prices seemingly every day, some people have finally started putting the new payment systems to real use – paying lawyers

United StatesTechnology
Nathaniel Miller
Nathaniel Miller
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With bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies reaching shocking new prices seemingly every day, some people have finally started putting the new payment systems to real use – paying lawyers. Earlier this fall Nebraska became the first state to hand down a formal ethics ruling on the propriety of lawyers charging their clients using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In allowing lawyers to charge their clients via cryptocurrencies, so long as they then instantly exchange the virtual currency for U.S. dollars, the decision may be indicative of a larger trend in the legal industry.

On September 11, 2017, the Lawyer's Advisory Committee, an ethics council appointed by the Nebraska Supreme Court, answered three questions in the affirmative: (1) may an attorney receive digital currencies as payment; (2) may an attorney receive digital currencies from third parties as payment for the benefit of their client; and (3) may an attorney hold digital currencies in escrow for a client?

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