Is This The First Law Firm In The Metaverse?
Welcome to the new, high-tech way to help your clients, lawyers.
Certainly what you’ve seen [while] coming out of the pandemic [is] clients would rather do a Zoom meeting rather than come into the office. We feel this is another opportunity to really solidify that connection with the client and make it easier to get their legal needs met and if they want to show up as an avatar to a meeting, we can do that.
The metaverse is yet another way to connect and maybe help someone. For us as a personal injury, employment discrimination and workers’ compensation law firm, anyone with these issues in the real world can ‘jump in’ and connect with us for help.
— Richard Grungo Jr., founding partner of New Jersey personal injury firm Grungo Colarulo, commenting on the firm’s recent launch of its metaverse office in Decentraland, a 3D virtual reality platform. “Traditionally law firms are slow to adopt these new opportunities,” Grungo said, “but the sooner you get there the more opportunities will be there to refine your communication and help others.”
UPDATE (12/6): It looks like Grungo Colarulo is not the first law firm in the metaverse. That honor goes to Falcon Rappaport & Berkman, a California firm that first established its virtual presence in Decentraland in August 2021.
UPDATE (12/14): There seems to be even more argument about which law firm was first in the metaverse. Metaverse Law, which first filed for its trademark in October 2019 and had it registered in June 2020, is currently involved in legal proceedings with Falcon Rappaport over the firm’s use of the term.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
