Abstract
Legal Technology —or “Legal Tech ”—is disrupting the traditional operations and self-understanding of the legal profession . This chapter introduces the central claim of this book, namely that these developments are having and will continue to have a disruptive effect on the work of lawyers and that adapting to this new operating environment is crucial for legal professionals remaining relevant in an increasingly technology -driven world. The chapter outlines some of the main features of this on-going transformation process, describes some of the pressures it is creating for lawyers , and provides short summaries of the chapters that comprise this collection.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Other synonyms which are used interchangeably are “law tech,” “LegalIT,” “legal informatics.”
- 2.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 3.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 4.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 5.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 6.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 7.
The Economist (2015a).
- 8.
Wattenhofer (2016), p. 85.
- 9.
Swan (2015), p. 16.
- 10.
Walch (2018), p. 245.
- 11.
Tomas (2017), Introduction.
- 12.
Asharaf and Adarsh (2017), p. 33.
- 13.
Kost de Sevres (2016).
- 14.
Mougayar (2015).
- 15.
Mougayar (2015).
- 16.
Stark (2016).
- 17.
Kosba et al. (2015), p. 1.
- 18.
Linthicum (2016).
- 19.
Wattenhofer (2016), p. 88.
- 20.
- 21.
Huang (2015), p. 3.
- 22.
The Economist (2015b).
- 23.
Bues and Matthaei (2017), p. 90.
- 24.
- 25.
Weber et al. (2016), p. 330.
- 26.
Kost de Sevres (2016).
- 27.
Wattenhofer (2016), p. 88.
- 28.
Szabo (1997a).
- 29.
Szabo (1997b).
- 30.
Stark (2016).
- 31.
- 32.
For “dumb” contracts, see Lipshaw (2018).
- 33.
Cummins (2016).
- 34.
LeDA/Legal Design Alliance (n.d.).
- 35.
Haapio and Passera (in press).
- 36.
Haapio (2013), p. 79.
- 37.
See “Three “Layers” of Licenses” at Creative Commons (n.d.).
- 38.
Howarth (2013), p. 67.
- 39.
Haapio and Passera (in press).
- 40.
Waller et al. (2017).
- 41.
Hazard and Haapio (2017).
- 42.
References
Asharaf S, Adarsh S (2017) Decentralized computing using blockchain technologies and smart contracts: emerging research and opportunities. Information Science Reference (IGI Global), Hershey
Blank S (2017) Why lawyers don’t run startups. https://thinkgrowth.org/why-lawyers-dont-run-startups-25c5e0c877ed. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Bues M-M, Matthaei E (2017) LegalTech on the rise: technology changes legal work behaviors, but does not replace its profession. In: Jacob K, Schindler D, Strathausen R (eds) Liquid legal: transforming legal into a business savvy, information enabled and performance driven industry. Springer, Cham
Creative Commons (n.d.) About the licenses. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Cummins T (2016) Can contracts really change? IACCM/Commitment Matters Blog, 2 March. https://www2.iaccm.com/resources/?id=9147. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Drescher D (2017) Blockchain basics: a non-technical introduction in 25 steps. Springer, New York
Haapio H (2006) Business success and problem prevention through proactive contracting. In: Wahlgren P (ed) A Proactive approach. Scandinavian studies in law, vol 49. Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law, Stockholm. http://www.scandinavianlaw.se/pdf/49-9.pdf. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Haapio H (2013) Next generation contracts: a paradigm shift. Lexpert Ltd., Helsinki
Haapio H, Passera S (in press) Contracts as interfaces: exploring visual representation patterns in contract design. In: Katz MJ, Dolin RA, Bommarito M (eds) Legal informatics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hagan M (n.d.) Law by design. http://www.lawbydesign.co. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Hazard J, Haapio H (2017) Wise contracts: smart contracts that work for people and machines. In: Schweighofer E et al (eds) Trends and communities of legal informatics. Proceedings of the 20th international legal informatics symposium IRIS 2017. Österreichische Computer Gesellschaft. http://books@ocg.at, Wien
Howarth D (2013) Law as engineering—thinking about what lawyers do. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Huang P (2015) A dissection of bitcoin. Lulu.com, s. l.
Kosba A et al (2015) Hawk: the blockchain model of cryptography and privacy-preserving smart contracts. https://www.weusecoins.com/as-sets/pdf/library/Hawk%20%20The%20Blockchain%20Model%20of%20Cryptography%20and%20Privacy-Preserving%20Smart%20Contracts.pdf. Accessed 10 Oct 2017
Kost de Sevres (2016) The blockchain revolution, smart contracts and financial transactions. https://www.dlapiper.com/en/uk/insights/publications/2016/04/the-blockchain-revolution/. Accessed 10 Oct 2017
LeDA/Legal Design Alliance (n.d.) https://www.legaldesignalliance.org. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Linthicum D (2016) Linking up blockchain and cloud. https://www.cloudtp.com/doppler/linking-blockchain-cloud/. Accessed 20 Nov 2017
Lipshaw J-M (2018) The persistence of ‘dumb’ contracts. Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 18–11, 25 June, last revised 6 Sep (Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy, 2019, Forthcoming). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3202484. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Morabito V (2017) Business innovation through blockchain: the B3 perspective. Springer, Cham
Mougayar W (2015) Understanding the blockchain: we must be prepared for the blockchain’s promise to become a new development environment. https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/understanding-the-blockchain. Accessed 16 May 2017
Prusty N (2017) Building blockchain projects: develop real-time practical DApps using Ethereum and JavaScript. Packt Publishing, Birmingham
Siedel G, Haapio H (2011) Proactive law for managers: a hidden source of competitive advantage. Gower, Farnham
Swan M (2015) Blockchain: blueprint for a new economy, 1st edn. O’Reilly, Sebastopol (CA)
Stark J (2016) How close are smart contracts to impacting real-world Law? http://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-smarts-contracts-real-world-law/. Accessed 16 May 2016
Szabo N (1997a) Contracts with bearer. http://szabo.best.vwh.net/bearer_contracts.html. Accessed 17 Oct 2017
Szabo N (1997b) The idea of smart contracts. http://szabo.best.vwh.net/smart_con-tracts_idea.html. Accessed 17 Oct 2017
The Economist (2015a) The great chain of being sure about things. http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21677228-technology-behind-bitcoin-lets-people-who-do-not-know-or-trust-each-other-build-dependable. Accessed 15 Oct 2017
The Economist (2015b) Bitcoin: the next big thing. http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21650295-or-it-next-big-thing. Accessed 15 May 2016
Tomas P (2017) Cryptocurrency 101: a beginners guide. Pronoun
Walch A (2018) Open-source operational risk: should public blockchains serve as financial market infrastructures? In: Lee D, Deng R (eds) Handbook of blockchain, digital finance, and inclusion, vol 3. Academic Press, London
Waller R, Haapio H, Passera S (2017) Contract simplification: the why and the how. Contract Excell J (July 24). http://journal.iaccm.com/contracting-excellence-journal/contract-simplification-the-why-and-the-how. Accessed 10 Sept 2018
Wattenhofer R (2016) The science of the blockchain. Inverted Forest Publishing, s. l.
Weber I et al (2016) Untrusted business process monitoring and execution using blockchain. In: La Rosa M, Loos P, Pastor O (eds) Business process management, 14th international conference, BPM 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 18–22, 2016, proceedings. Springer, Cham
Williams D (2017) Cryptocurrency compendium: a reference for cryptocurrencies. Lulu.com
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Corrales, M., Fenwick, M., Haapio, H. (2019). Digital Technologies, Legal Design and the Future of the Legal Profession. In: Corrales, M., Fenwick, M., Haapio, H. (eds) Legal Tech, Smart Contracts and Blockchain. Perspectives in Law, Business and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6086-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6086-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6085-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6086-2
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)