Jurisprudence isn’t as stuck in the past as we like to think. Lawyers are increasingly setting up offices in virtual worlds in order to connect with technology clients and entrepreneurs–where the clientele goes, the law firms will follow. This shift is being driven by the need for more effective and quick advice for younger, digital-native clients, and the lack of connection afforded from zoom and phone calls.
By Virtual of Law:
Law and order is yet another civic sector set to be drastically changed by the metaverse and relevant technology–Deloitte Legal, based in Madrid, is in the process of creating its own virtual office space used by partners in Barcelona and London to meet clients and each other in an immersive web space. The virtual law-firm will also feature a learning space with a digital whiteboard used to train and onboard lawyers as well as interact with clients in a more visual medium of communication.
Partner at Deloitte Legal Rodrigo Gonzalez Ruíz cites the pandemic as the spark for this move from the physical into the virtual. Like with many others, Ruíz said that 2D calls just weren’t cutting it throughout quarantine, which drove them to explore “new ways to interact with our clients and to attract the interests of clients”. This has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of crypto-invested clients and blockchain-involved entrepreneurs, as they’ve been some of the first to push virtual world adoption.
Like any other field of work, this just goes to show that the law also has to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of technology and the new needs of the mercurial market of customers. In the attention economy, grabbing the attention of young legal clients is a serious challenge, with people increasingly looking for quick legal solutions rather than extensive paperwork that could take hours to get through.
In a collaborative virtual world, it’s easy for a lawyer like Ruíz to give quick-fire advice to clients in need in a more immersive and personal way, allowing a better connection with his clients. And Deloitte Legal aren’t the only law firm hopping aboard the metaverse monorail; they’re joined by other legal giants including German Gleiss Lutz and the US-based Grungo Colarulo.
The added spatial and virtual elements to these law firms will also open up a broader avenue of outreach, for education and awareness of the legal sector.
Judge, Jury and Educator
The added spatial and virtual elements to these law firms also opens up a broader avenue of outreach, for education and awareness of the law. Having a virtual space, many of these law firms have seen an increase in interest of people looking to visit and get involved. Many want to simply visit the space out of interest, to see what it's like, while others have attended seminars and lessons given by legal partners.
While using VR technology and virtual spaces clearly has benefits, many of these law companies actually purchased digital land in “metaverse” platforms like Decentraland. Not only were these especially speculative, but at times can be quite pricey, leading some law firms to seek out ways to create their own spaces. Founding partner of Grungo Carulo–Richard Grungo Jr–employed the help of his 11-year old daughter and her minecraft expertise to create their own virtual space in order to interact with clients in a new way.
Whatever the case, with law firms taking up new technology to attract new customers and interact with old ones in different ways, the metaverse is already priming many sectors for radical transformation.
