The Nebraska Supreme Court recently issued an ethics opinion discussing whether lawyers may accept their fees in Bitcoin. In reporting on this development Bloomberg reached out to Womble Carlyle lawyer, Steve Middlebrook for comment. Middlebrook, an experienced payments attorney who advises clients in the virtual currency space, generally agreed with the opinion but felt that certain restrictions, including the requirement that attorneys immediately convert bitcoin received to dollars, were unwarranted.
Steve Middlebrook has an extensive background in emerging payment technologies, prepaid and stored value products, mobile payments, web-based financial services, virtual currency and distributed ledger technology. His prior experience includes being General Counsel at two fintech companies, and a decade's service at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He also served as an advisor to the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) committee which drafted the Uniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act. The Uniform Act was recently approved by the ULC and is now being considered for adoption by a number of states.
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