Although it might go against a lawyer's natural propensities toward risk aversion, some practitioners have started accepting payments in digital currencies amid the bitcoin boom.

“I've known for a long time that my opportunity to expand in certain areas has been affected by not taking it,” said Carol Van Cleef, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who for 10 years has represented cryptocurrency clients with regulatory compliance.

As far back as 2013, a handful of big law firms that represented the earliest cryptocurrency entrepreneurs started accepting bitcoin payments. Today, big and small firms alike, as well as solo practitioners, have followed their lead and have accepted cryptocurrency's risks in order to meet clients' needs and get paid.

Although the firms where Van Cleef worked in the past—most recently, BakerHostetler and previously, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips—haven't accepted bitcoin payments, she's currently working out an arrangement with a client to do so now that she's practicing on her own.

“It's a symbol for the client about how vested you are in the area,” she said, explaining that cryptocurrency insiders believe emphatically in its future.

Lawyers accepting bitcoin find technical support from companies that offer digital currency exchange and payment processing services, enabling them to quickly convert a bitcoin payment into U.S. dollars.

Perkins Coie may have been the first of a handful of big firms to accept bitcoin payments back in 2013, Van Cleef said. Steptoe & Johnson made the move in 2016. Frost Brown Todd, which counts 500 lawyers, followed last year. (Attorneys at Perkins and Steptoe didn't return calls seeking comment.)

Cryptocurrency companies and entrepreneurs are the type of clients most likely to want to pay a lawyer's bill using cryptocurrency, said Van Cleef, who began representing clients in the crypto field even before bitcoin's debut in 2008. Such clients are immersed in the crypto markets, and they've accumulated a lot of wealth in bitcoin. Bitcoin's sharp rise also created new millionaires who might now want to pay their bills with cryptocurrency. Bitcoin payments could be a worthwhile arrangement for any lawyer, regardless of practice area, who can attract those types of clients.

“If I'm willing to accept it, it's easier and in a lot of ways better for me, because I can get more rapid payment,” she said.

But while lawyers have a greater understanding of cryptocurrency these days, Van Cleef said, they're still not fully comfortable with it.

Cryptocurrency's wild price volatility is the main factor fueling this discomfort. Just in the past 12 months, the price of one bitcoin increased by 1,128 percent, going from $908 in late January 2017 to more than $11,000 this month, according to Coinmarketcap.com, which tracks cryptocurrency markets. In the shorter term, the prices can swing up and down dramatically. This month, bitcoin hit a high of $17,650 per bitcoin on Jan. 6, and then fell to a low of $9,900 per bitcoin on Jan. 17. The price has been climbing since then and now hovers just over $11,000 as of Jan. 24.

As an example, if a lawyer billed a client for $15,000, and the client paid with one bitcoin—at that moment valued at $15,000—the price might have dropped to just $13,000 by the next day, when the lawyer converted the bitcoin to dollars. It's also possible the value would have risen, giving the lawyer more than the original bill.

“Lawyers are typically very risk adverse and tend to be on the side of certainty, so I think that's probably one of the biggest issues for them in accepting bitcoin as a fee,” said Van Cleef. “How do you price it? When do you price it? How do you ensure you're minimizing any downside risk in a volatile trading market?”

Jay Cohen.

Because of the currency's wild swings, Houston criminal-defense solo Jay Cohen moves quickly when he gets payment in bitcoin. “We cash it out when it comes in, because of the volatility,” said Cohen, who began accepting bitcoin payments in 2013. He added that, volatility aside, there's no difference between accepting cryptocurrency and taking something more tangible—like jewelry or a watch—as a payment from a client.

Cashing out has become more complicated than when Cohen first started accepting bitcoin, he said. Bitcoin's popularity is burdening the worldwide network of computers that work together to verify transactions and record them in the bitcoin blockchain, which is a decentralized and distributed ledger.

Lengthy transaction times haven't yet interfered with business, however, since bitcoin hasn't been an extremely popular payment method among Cohen's clients. He said a couple of his clients who worked in the technology industry have used it. Because his clients have been charged with crimes, sometimes their spouses don't not want them to pay their legal bills out of the family's budget, leading them to use other assets like bitcoin, he said.

The use of bitcoin for paying fees is not without its legal ethics issues. One possible problem is the puzzle of tracing bitcoin to ensure it hasn't come from illegal activity. Cohen said one potential client inquired about paying with bitcoin for an appeal, but Cohen turned down the work when he learned the case involved money laundering with bitcoin.

“I like the anonymity of it, but at the same time, I had to decline to represent people who wanted to do it because I don't want to be investigated by anyone,” he said.

Kathryn Haun, a former assistant U.S. attorney in San Francisco who has prosecuted and convicted criminals who used bitcoin, said that she prosecuted one case and informed the criminal-defense lawyer that his client had cryptocurrency from criminal proceeds. But most lawyers won't get such insider government information, Haun said. Instead, lawyers should follow the same procedures they use to determine the legitimacy of fiat money, she said.

“There is no reason to believe that cryptocurrency is illegitimate and criminally-derived any more than any other form of currency or payment,” she said in an email. “Cryptocurrencies are not special in that regard and I would think would be treated like any other funds.”

Before Matt McKeever's firm in Omaha even decided to take bitcoin, he asked for an ethics opinion from his state's supreme court.

Most states have attorney disciplinary rules that prohibit a lawyer from charging an unconscionable fee. To ensure the fee is reasonable, a lawyer should immediately convert a cryptocurrency payment into dollars, said an opinion by a committee of the Nebraska Supreme Court. This ensures that if the price of cryptocurrency spikes, the lawyer is not getting overpaid, and if the price tanks, the lawyer isn't holding worthless bitcoin—which could brew a lawyer-client conflict of interest.

The opinion also said that a lawyer can hold digital currencies in trust for a client or third party. It must be kept separate from the lawyer's own property and the lawyer must safeguard it and keep records. Bitcoins are property—not actual currency—and therefore can't be deposited into a client trust account, unless it's first converted to dollars, the opinion said.

McKeever, a shareholder in Copple, Rockey, McKeever & Schlecht, said to comply with the ethics opinion, the firm is opening a digital currency processing account with Coinbase, a prominent U.S. digital currency exchange. It will accept cryptocurrency payments from clients, then automatically and immediately convert the funds to dollars. The payment processer assumes the risk of price volatility, ensuring the firm gets the right amount of fiat currency.

Through that process, the firm isn't issuing client refunds in bitcoin—only dollars. Also, clients will know the firm has a right to screen the source of the funds to ensure they're legitimate, not criminal.

Accepting bitcoin is a good move for law firms, McKeever said, because they can receive a payment faster than waiting for a check in the mail. Unlike with credit card payments, if a client contests a bitcoin payment, there are no charge backs. Firms also can save money in fees: It pays a 2 to 5 percent fee for a credit card payment, but Coinbase's services are free for the first $1 million of payments, and then cost 1 percent on transactions, he said.

McKeever said his area is becoming known as the “Silicone Prairie” and he's doing regulatory compliance work with cryptocurrency companies and individuals who want to pay in bitcoin.

“We like happy clients, and if clients want to pay in bitcoin, and we are able to take it, we are more than happy,” said McKeever.

Angela Morris is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter at @AMorrisReports