Interested in training for your team? Click here to learn more

Emergence of Blockchain: New Applications, Issues and Best Practices for Corporate Counsel

Navigating Choice of Law, Electronic Signatures, Enforceability of Smart Contracts, Money Transfer Licensing, Privacy, AML and More

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A

This program is included with the Strafford CLE Pass. Click for more information.
This program is included with the Strafford All-Access Pass. Click for more information.

Conducted on Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Recorded event now available

or call 1-800-926-7926

This CLE course will guide corporate counsel on the technology and uses of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT). The panel will discuss the legal and regulatory hurdles companies may encounter in moving transactions and information onto a distributed ledger, including a blockchain.

Description

The word “Blockchain” is difficult to define. At its core, a blockchain is a type of encrypted database that allows assets, transactions, or information to be authenticated. A blockchain can be decentralized, like Bitcoin’s blockchain, so that the transactions are verified without the need of a third part, but it does not have to be. The technology is often associated with cryptocurrencies, but a cryptocurrency is not always necessary, or advisable, to implement a blockchain.

The innovative potential of widespread adoption of blockchain technology (as well as non-blockchain innovations that are sometimes mislabeled as “blockchain”) is profound. For example, these technologies can enable computable and self-executing “smart contracts,” which can significantly reduce transaction time and costs, enable autonomous machine-to-machine transactions, and fundamentally alter our understanding how countless industries will interact with their clients. Modern corporate counsel must understand this rapidly changing technology, as well as the unique benefits and liabilities that these and other similar innovations can pose.

The panel will guide corporate counsel on the technology and uses of blockchain and other often lumped-together technologies. The panel will discuss the legal and regulatory hurdles companies may encounter in moving transactions and information onto a blockchain, or in deciding whether to participate in a “token generation event” or “initial coin offering.”

READ MORE

Outline

  1. What is a blockchain and what is it not? How can new technologies change the way transactions and information are transmitted and verified?
  2. Every cryptocurrency is not Bitcoin. What you need to know in determining whether to accept a cryptocurrency, or whether you want to launch a token of your own.
  3. What is a smart contract and how can it help your client innovate? What are the risks associated with autonomy.
  4. Exploring some of the most innovative uses of these technologies and how it is disintermediating multiple industries.
  5. Reviewing the ever-changing regulatory landscape impacting blockchain and cryptocurrencies so you can best advise clients in the space.

Benefits

The panel will review these and other critical issues:

  • What is a distributed ledger and how does it change the way transactions and information are documented?
  • How can smart contract enforcement be embedded in a distributed ledger or blockchain?
  • What are some of the current and proposed uses for blockchain?
  • What legal issues arise with blockchain that are not present with more conventional formats for transacting business

Faculty

Carroll, Richard
Richard B. Carroll

Counsel
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr

Mr. Carroll concentrates his practice on corporate and governance matters, covering a broad range of corporate,...  |  Read More

Mack, Olga
Olga V. Mack
Vice President of Strategy
Quantstamp

Ms. Mack is a technology strategist who enjoys advising her clients to success and growth. Currently Vice President of...  |  Read More

Wales, Justin
Justin S. Wales

Carlton Fields Jorden Burt

Mr. Wales serves as co-chair of the firm’s blockchain technology and digital currency practice. He advises...  |  Read More

Access Anytime, Anywhere

Strafford will process CLE credit for one person on each recording. All formats include course handouts.

To find out which recorded format will provide the best CLE option, select your state:

CLE On-Demand Video

Download