A report released by the Tech London Advocates’ (TLA) Blockchain Legal and Regulatory Group in conjunction with the Law Society of England and Wales provides lawyers with regulatory guidance around distributed ledger technology (DLT) and clarity on the role smart contracts, cryptoassets and blockchain will play in their future practice.
The use of DLT in business has come to prominence over the last few years. DLTs are a broad umbrella of technologies that seek to store, synchronise and maintain digital records across a network of computing centres.
Over the past year, representatives from TLA, the wider legal profession and experts have addressed key issues for lawyers when they are advising on DLTs including smart contracts, blockchain and cryptoassets.*
The Covid-19 pandemic has incentivised firms of all types and sizes to embrace new technologies and we expect to see a further increase in LawTech adoption rates across the profession.
The report includes a list of key recommendations relating to DLT, including commercial application, data governance, intellectual property, data protection measures and dispute resolution, among others.
Law Society of England and Wales president Simon Davis said:
“The publication of this report, which happens during London Tech Week, will provide a clear framework and much needed guidance on the use of blockchain in the legal services sector.
“Technology underpins innovation in legal services and plays a critical role in driving the post coronavirus recovery across all sectors of the economy.
“It is considered that 2020 to 2021 are ‘breakout’ years for DLT, and the pandemic has forced businesses and governments to re-evaluate their service and business models more fundamentally than ever before.
“Our research suggests that the adoption of new technologies could reduce the cost of legal services to UK business users by £350 million by 2030, and double productivity growth in the legal sector.
“Every £1 of productivity saving in the legal services sector in 2020 could generate between £3.30 and £3.50 of additional GDP for the UK by 2050.
“In 2020, every £1 increase in legal productivity is estimated to result in £9.15 to £10.61 of additional capital by 2050.
“Investing in LawTech now will lay the foundations for the UK’s long-term prosperity, while the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce has demonstrated that English common law is flexible and can adapt to new technologies.”
One Response
As one who remembers the then Law Society President condemning Prof Susskind to excommunication by the profession for suggesting that email was the future of communication for lawyers, I take comfort in the present President presenting serious figures on the value of technological investment. Has the legal sector come of age?
I am, however, disappointed that my word search facility fails to find a single use of “lease” in the recent paper.
It has long been my ambition to see every lease issued by the Land Registry have a copy of the same “google translated” into plain English and checked by qualified translators.
A big and expensive job which should be paid for by the Government in return for a slice of the added value on first sale. A possible kick-starter of the economy post-pandemic
So that consumers will be told what is not in a lease a standard taxonomy of the information that an informed lease buyer needs or might want should be devised so that attention is drawn to the need for further information. I see no reason why a start should not be made on this immediately