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Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan said Tuesday that it has started accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, joining a handful of other firms that have acknowledged their openness to the fledgling payment method.

The firm said it accepted its first cryptocurrency payment last week using BitPay, a Georgia-based bitcoin payment service. The firm did not name the client involved.

In a statement, founding partner John Quinn said that since Quinn Emanuel has several clients in the financial technology sector, it is comfortable adopting nontraditional payment.

"We want to be flexible for our clients. Bitcoin is an easy and secure way to transfer funds, and we embrace it," he said.

Quinn Emanuel is among just a few large law firms that have been public about accepting payment via cryptocurrency: Perkins Coie, Steptoe & Johnson LLP and Frost Brown Todd also accept bitcoin payments, and a slew of smaller firms as well as solo practitioners have embraced the payment structure.

Dave Grable, co-chairman of Quinn Emanuel's national trial practice group, said in an interview that the decision to start accepting cryptocurrency payments is in line with the 830-lawyer, litigation-only firm's overall appetite for innovation.

"This is another area where we've looked at the market use of blockchain and cryptocurrency," he said. "This is something we certainly wanted to be able to do for clients who want to do transactions this way, and we were comfortable with the transparency and security of the process."

Grable said the firm as a whole has handled many matters in the fintech space, and he sees an opportunity especially with younger technology companies that are embracing cryptocurrency in various parts of their business models.

"[Clients] associated in that space are going to have some desire to consider an option like this," he said.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency have been a hot topic in the legal industry for years, with many firms establishing practices to advise clients on the technologies. But some experts have questioned whether accepting bitcoin as payment for legal services raises ethical issues.

Mark Palmer, chief counsel for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, wrote in 2018 that cryptocurrency payments presented a challenge for the legal industry because of volatile valuations that could lead to unethical overpayment for services.

"Does the cost, complexity and risk outweigh the potential benefits of your firm accepting this novel and quickly evolving form of compensation?" he wrote. "Like most things, it comes down to a business decision for you to make while ensuring you do so ethically under your Rules of Professional Conduct."

John Reed Stark, president of John Reed Stark Consulting and a former chief of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's Office of Internet Enforcement, took a more hard-line approach in 2018. After outlining some of the potential benefits of accepting cryptocurrency—business development, client relations and legal education—he concluded that they don't outweigh the costs.

"But having said all of the above, the risks for a law firm that accepts cryptocurrency run a perilous gamut of legal, regulatory, financial, ethical and reputational dangers," he wrote. "Simply stated, accepting cryptocurrency as a fee payment in today's crypto-manic environment is, despite all of the bus dev allure, just not worth it."

Palmer and Stark were not immediately available to comment.

Grable said the firm weighed the ethical considerations of accepting bitcoin payments before making its decision, and that's partly what led the firm to BitPay, a cryptocurrency payment service provider, to facilitate handling the payments.

"We recognize there's volatility involved, and the BitPay service will help in that regard," he said. "We're comfortable with how we've addressed the volatility issues."

Herrick Lidstone, a shareholder at Burns, Figa & Will and an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, co-authored an academic paper last year that explored the ethics and practicality of cryptocurrency payments. He said in an email that as long as law firms stay in accordance with the rules, it is their choice to explore cryptocurrency payments.

"As the article said, there are a number of ways to do it, some correctly, too many incorrectly," he said. "With Quinn Emanuel's sophistication and experience, I expect them to do it correctly."

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