The Chicago-Kent College of Law recently hosted an all-day conference on Blockchain technologies, the FinTech regulatory environment and the role that lawyers play in guiding startup founders as they balance the pace of innovation with their compliance obligations. 

Hosted a block from Union Station at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Law Lab, the conference definitely had a meetup vibe complete with a donut wall and smoothie bar. Of the 600+ people attending, the conference was also a reunion of sorts for the principal players at the intersection of blockchain and the law. In fact one of the Denton’s lawyers I spoke with during the break mentioned that these events have a reputation for drawing innovators, educators and regulators from across the country.  And, nearly half of the speakers on the powerhouse roster were women regulators, professors and entrepreneurs.

Dive Right In

Unlike Stanford’s CodeX FutureLaw conference in April, there was no official Blockchain 101 session as an introduction to the day’s topics and acronyms.  However, a number of speakers pointed newcomers to some foundational resources on the technology and current regulatory landscape.

Daniel Martin Katz, Professor of Law and Director of the Law Lab, who opened the event, teaches one of the first law school courses on Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the Law.

Angela Walch, a Professor of Law at St. Mary’s, who focuses on blockchain technologies and governance mentioned, “’Blockchain’ is Meaningless,” and Tony Lai, the Founder and Chairman of Legal.io and Chair of the Blockchain Group at CodeX, offered up Michele Finck’s article, “Blockchains: Regulating the Unknown,” during his TED style talk. 

Bob Bowman, a Husch Blackwell attorney focusing on the Technology, Manufacturing and Transportation industries, also discusses the benefits of blockchain technology from a legal perspective in “Blockchain is bigger than bitcoin.”

A Mecca for Blockchain Innovators 

One of the many topics picked up in the live commentary on Twitter #blocklegaltech was a statement from Nina Kilbride, the Chief Commercial Officer at Monax, who spoke about “what happens when legal agreements can talk to each other.” Monax recently introduced the Agreements Network which will allow lawyers to design and manage smart contracts on a distributed ledger compatible with the public ethereum blockchain (get the Whitepaper). 

After her presentation, I spoke with Nina about the platform, which should be available around the October timeframe, and its potential to transform legal contracting. Peter Hunn, the Founder of the Accord Project and Clause.io, is also working with Monax to develop standards so that smart contracts, written on platform’s like the Agreement’s Network, are compatible with all varieties of blockchain on the Internet.

In addition to the entrepreneurs on stage, there were many innovators in the audience who were already pursuing blockchain's benefits, from increasing trust between parties to a transaction to performing immediate micro or cross-border payments to accelerating supply chains. 

For instance, the gentleman sitting next to me led innovation sprints at AXA’s San Francisco FinTech Innovation Lab. A year ago one of his teams developed a blockchain insurance product for flight delays which makes immediate micro-payments when one’s travel is interrupted.

At lunch, I had an enlightening conversation with a VP at Wells Fargo and a blockchain lawyer from Gowlings on topics from the big bank’s interest in a private blockchain to streamline cross-border transactions to the work Maersk and IBM are doing to blockchain-enable shipping solutions, which could potentially double the traffic crossing the international bridge between the U.S. and Mexico.

All of these innovations rely on the same kind of smart contract technologies becoming available through platform’s like the Agreements Network.

FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco Stole the Show

Not only on Twitter, but also in the press immediately following the conference. His prepared remarks are available through FinCEN at the Department of the Treasury. In his fireside chat that followed, Director Blanco echoed a number of themes from earlier in the day. In particular he reinforced Angela’s Walch’s comments that lawyers should question statements that the blockchain is ‘immutable’ and ‘trustless,’ and that innovators need to consider the consequences of their innovations, just as Professor Walch noted that lawyers as builders should consider how their actions might have systemic effects. 

Block(Legal)Tech definitely lived up to its reputation with an incredible depth of content and rich discussion both on and off the stage. Professor Katz and his team at the Chicago-Kent College of Law put together both an outstanding educational event for the blockchain community and a forum that highlighted the future challenges for entrepreneurs pursuing ICO's and the regulators enforcing AML/CFT requirements.

For those who missed the conference, some of the Ted-style talks may be available at some point in the future at the LawLabChannel, which already hosts at least eight talks on the blockchain.

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[Lann Wasson is Associate Director of Legal Project Management at law firm Husch Blackwell.]