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"Over time we may see law firms getting more comfortable with the loss of control that you have to be willing to undertake." — TECHNOLOGY LAWYER ROB HYNDMAN Known as "Benjamin Noble" in Second Life, he's also the founder of the Second Life Bar Association. European-based Field Fisher Water- house LLP is currently the only large law firm in Second Life. What Duranske has seen, though, is the proliferation over the past year of solo practitioners and smaller firms opening up in this space. "Firms are trying to figure out how best to use it, much like firms were try- ing to figure out how best to use the internet in 1996," he says. "A few firms are setting up outposts, not with a significant detailed plan in terms of how they're going to use this, but rather with an eye on exploring the space and becoming acquainted with it, so as it grows they will have practitioners who have knowledge of this area." His one-year term as president of the Second Life Bar Association just ended, though he's still involved as the founder. "We're running it like a real bar association," he says. "There's no certification require- ments — we're just a collection of attorneys with shared interests — but I get a lot of requests from users for referrals to attorneys who can help them with legal problems at a rate of about three or four a week." While he doesn't know how many of those have turned into repre- sentations, a few of them have. Lawyer Stevan Lieberman (known as "Navets Potato" in Second Life), of Washington, D.C. IP firm Greenberg and Lieberman, for example, is one attorney who has successfully made contact with people in Second Life that later became clients. If an attorney has high-tech clients, they're going to be expected, in the very near future, to at least have knowledge of these virtual worlds and to be able to dis- cuss them intelligently. "And I think the only way to do that is to actually show up," says Duranske. It's not just high- tech clients either. More mainstream businesses are entering this space — if not on their own, then with a partner who can represent their brand. Herman Miller, for example, which designs modern office furniture, decided it needed a presence in the virtual world and hired a developer called Rivers Run Red to build virtu- al Herman Miller chairs and deploy them in Second Life. There were al- ready people in Second Life making Herman Miller chairs, so the com- pany offered avatars with knock-off virtual Herman Miller chairs the opportunity to trade them in for "real" virtual Herman Miller chairs at no cost. "Those that are paying attention DD CL GRLBBB-03 Frntr bw 2/7/08 11:09 AM Page 1 D OFFICE & FURNITURE PRODUCTS C Office Furniture ye & Durham offers Ergonomic Furniture products with tips on selecting Ergonomic soloutions that offer more comfort and productivity. Contact one of our Ergonomic Furniture specialists today for comfort tomorrow. dyedurham.ca 1-888-393-3874 Fax: 1-800-263-2772 Choose Dye& Durham your ONE source supplier 34 M ARCH 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com to this space know that there is a huge potential in the future for cli- ent development," says Duranske. "In terms of practice areas, I think that trademark and copyright issues are absolutely at the top of the list. There have been several lawsuits filed over this already." Two lawyers opened up a Second Life patent and trademark office W e ' r e a y C a n a p d i m a n o a n