Wolf Konstant spoke to Mengqi Sun of the Wall Street Journal about how the "crypto industry can't hire enough lawyers." While the competition for in-house legal talent is higher than ever in most industries, the highly regulated nature of crypto and the scarcity of experienced attorneys in the space makes the competition to hire an in-house crypto attorney incredibly fierce. Wolf has established himself as the leading legal recruiter in the crypto and fintech spaces, through dozens of placements, both in-house and at law firms, and he's recently watched the in-house crypto and fintech job market proliferate, with Whistler running between 6-10 in-house fintech jobs at any given time.
On the need for crypto lawyers at an early stage:
“In [the crypto] space, the consensus is you need to have someone in-house early.... especially since investors are going to require that, you need to have someone there to help chaperone the process and to make sure everything is buttoned up from the start.”
On the amplified demand for specialists:
"Mr. Konstant said there is a great deal of competition for all legal talent across sectors, where candidates for in-house roles may receive multiple offers. But 'for the crypto space, it’s more pronounced,' he said, adding that there is a huge demand for those with specialized knowledge in crypto and previous experience working at law firms that specialized in crypto or having built in-house crypto-focused teams."