LOS ANGELES—Goodwin Procter, acommercial real estate law firm, has launched acrowdfunding practice to handle the legal issuesassociated with the relatively new platform. LewFeldman, a partner in the firm's real estate capitalmarkets group, will lead the new practice. To learn more about thefirm's crowdfunding practice and the legal risks involved with theemerging crowdfunding industry, we sat down with Feldman. Here, heshares his legal take on the new industry.

GlobeSt.com: What prompted Goodwin Procter to launcha crowdfunding practice?

Lew Feldman: Goodwin Procter hasactually been addressing the needs of a growing number of ourclients participating in online debt and equity raises for realestate and venture finance for sometime now. We have a marketleading expertise advising both technology companies and realestate companies in accessing both debt and equity and navigatingfinancial institutions, private equity and the public capitalmarkets. Because of our clients' vision and pioneering entry intothe space, we were early to understand the industry. Now that realestate and venture sponsors and investors are interested inentering the space, we are able to introduce them to our networkwithin the crowdfunding industry and facilitate their ability toefficiently incorporate new technology into theiractivities—whether they want to launch proprietary portals or listor partner with existing multi operator marketplaces.