The Story Behind Goodwin’s New PropTech Practice

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International law firm Goodwin has launched a new practice fully devoted to the Proptech space. It is being co-led by partners Minta Kay, who is chair of the firm’s Real Estate Group and Salil Gandhi, who is partner in the firm’s Technology Group.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Kay and Gandhi to hear more about the new endeavor and the reasons for its launch .

It sounds like the new practice is the result of many different percolating trends.

Gandhi: I would say that is correct. On the technology side of the house we have been seeing for a while real estate developments aimed at the consumer with some real successes such as the Zillows. More recently we have been seeing these efforts move beyond consumer applications to develop applications for safety and construction, or new materials, or AI companies thinking about how to best design or use space.

On the real estate side of the house we were having clients ask us such questions as, ‘we have this data, how can we use it?’ ‘how do we better service our end user with it?’

So after a market analysis and validating our findings with clients we decided to launch what had been a sub-practice as a full practice that spans the technology and the real estate side of the house.

What are some of the legal issues that you expect to see arise in the Proptech practice?

Gandhi: The issues will depend on the type of business the client is in. I will say that some of the solutions may not be so novel, but rather merely applied to a new group of clients.

So for real estate finance, for example, we are trying to be thoughtful in how people fundraise — trying to educate fundraising platforms on their obligations on how to comply with securities and disclosure laws. We expect to see questions around digital currencies and tokens and how development clients can raise funds with those products. That, by the way, is a great example of the merging of our tech and real estate expertise because it speaks to our crypto and security law practices.

Another issue will be around data and data privacy, in which we are already seeing a lot of interest. So we will be thinking about what kind of disclosures we need to make in order to collect that data and how we can use it. And whether we can sell that data or provide it to a third party who may help us crunch the data.

Intellectual property issues will be part of the practice as will the use of blockchain technology.

Are there any court cases or legal developments you are watching that will affect the Proptech practice?

Kay: I would say that it is such early days that people are still trying to figure out the lay of the land. There has not been a lot of litigation yet but I do think that will come, particularly with the growth in the use of and collection of data.

What is the current thinking or conventional wisdom about the use of data in Proptech?

Kay: Tenants is one area people are highly focused on. However I would say the hospitality and leisure sector is even more interested in the collection and use of data. You can imagine why: they are operating a business as much as they are real estate owners. They have loyalty programs and such and there is a lot of value in gathering that data.

Your practice is relatively new. Do you have many clients yet?

Kay: Oh yes, we’ve got a list of them already. They are popping out of the woodwork and they encompass a wide range of businesses such as traditional real estate investment managers and publicly traded companies and the entrepreneurs that are developing many of these products.

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