Author: Amelia Chew Page 3 of 5

The Power and Pitfalls of Smart Contracts: A Recap

On 24th April 2018

In Blockchain, Contracts, Events, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 4 minutes

Written by Chelsea Chan | Edited by Amelia Chew & Irene Ng

LawTech.Asia had the privilege of being a media partner for TechLaw.Fest 2018. The inaugural TechLaw.Fest held from 4 to 6 April 2018 saw the convergence of legal professionals, technologists, entrepreneurs and policy makers, conversant and passionate about Technology Law and Legal Technology, coming together to discuss the future of Singapore’s technology scene. This article summarises one of the panel discussions held on 5 April 2018 titled “The Power and Pitfalls of Smart Contracts”.

The discussion was chaired by Joyce A. Tan (Joyce A. Tan & Partners); and the panel comprised of Ashton Addison (CEO and Founder, Eventchain.io), Sopnendu Mohanty (Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore), Hirofumi Aihara (General Manager of Digital Innovation, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), Tomasz Kurcyzk (Digital Transformation Director, AXA Singapore) and Stella Cramer (APAC Head of Technology & Innovation, Norton Rose Fulbright).

After the introduction by Joyce Tan, Ashton Addison elaborated on the basics of a smart contract and potential technological pitfalls. A Smart Contract is an agreement converted into a small piece of software, which stores the rules and terms of the agreement and when met automatically executes exactly how it was coded. The appeal of a Smart Contract lies in its automation and that it is fully transparent, so the code reflecting contractual terms can be seen by anyone regardless of privity to contract. However, bugs in the code may lead to loss of funds. Further, large transactions are currently not possible since Ethereum can only handle 13 transactions per second, potentially creating a significant backlog if applied to current business transactions.

TechLaw.Fest Quick Chats: Hugh Mason, JFDI.Asia

By Amelia Chew

On 3rd April 2018

In Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Data Privacy, Events, Interviews, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation, Policy

Reading time: 6 minutes

Interview by Amelia Chew

TechLaw.Fest 2018 will bring together leading Technology Law thinkers and Legal Technology vendors from 4 to 6 April 2018 at Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore. Within it, the TechLaw.Fest Hackathon will be an intense, fast-paced 48-hour event challenging legal professionals, software developers and designers to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems faced by lawyers, in-house counsels and users of legal services. The event has a particular focus on personal data protection and the challenges faced by data protection officers (DPOs) in Singapore. The top three teams will receive prize vouchers worth up to $12,000 and the opportunity to develop their solutions further under SAL’s Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP) Accelerator Programme.

Hugh Mason, CEO of JFDI.Asia, is partnering with the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) to operate the FLIP Accelerator and will also serve as a judge in the TechLaw.Fest Hackathon. Here, the LawTech.Asia team asked him how he saw teams from the hackathon following through to make their ideas real.

We understand that you will be running the accelerator programme under SAL’s Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP). How does this fit into SAL’s Legal Tech Vision?

One way of thinking about innovation is to see it on three ‘Horizons’.

Horizon 1 is the known world of work we see today: the core business of lawyers and their clients as we know it. Here we are looking for efficiency savings by using off-the-shelf productivity tools. The LIFTED programme at SAL addresses this aspect of the SAL Legal Tech Vision, as does the incubator at Collision 8.

TechLaw.Fest Quick Chats: Alexis Chun, Legalese

By Amelia Chew

On 22nd March 2018

In Uncategorized

Reading time: 5 minutes

Interview by Amelia Chew | Edited by Utsav Rakshit

TechLaw.Fest 2018 will take place from 4 to 6 April 2018 in Singapore, bringing together leading thinkers in the space of Technology Law and leading makers in the space of Legal Technology. In the lead-up to TechLaw.Fest, the LawTech.Asia team will bring you regular interviews and shout-outs covering prominent speakers and the topics they will be speaking at TechLaw.Fest.

This week, LawTech.Asia sat down for a chat with Alexis Chun, Co-Founder of Legalese. Alexis will be speaking at the Law of Tech Conference on the panel titled Legal Issues in Legal Tech.

What are your views on SAL’s Legal Tech Vision?

The Legal Tech Vision is a commendable effort and a step in the right direction. I applaud SAL for taking on the important task of thought leadership in the industry. It’s heartening to see the sentiment of LegalZoom’s Eddie Hartman being echoed, i.e., that we should enlist non-lawyers to help fix the legal market. Indeed, there is a distinction between the legal industry and the legal profession. Not drawing that distinction clearly obfuscates a couple of key points: What is the role of the lawyer? How much of advice hinges on having gone to law school? How much of it is applied experience or business strategy? Is law a service industry or one that sells products? What about the decoupled parts of “law” — corporate secretaries, legal executives, patent agents, etc?

I look at that and think, now, how will that change in this software eaten world?

Initial Coin Offering: an Inaccurate Term with an Imperfect Regulator

By Amelia Chew

On 21st March 2018

In Uncategorized

Reading time: 10 minutes

Guest Post by Patrick Dahm

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Patrick’s blog here. We would like to thank Patrick for graciously allowing us to reproduce this article on this site for our readers.)

This is my speech at the first Computational Law & Blockchain Festival – Singapore Node on 17 March 2018. In it, I tried to explain what initial coin offerings are, why governments all over the world eye them curiously, and how governments regulate them – if they regulate them. I also questioned why brick and mortar governments regulate something so digital.

Hi, I’m Patrick.

I’m a lawyer. I practise cyberlaw, as I like to call it. Although this is derived from the term cyberspace, which seems to be a bit vintage. It shouldn’t be, if you ask me.

I’m here to talk about initial coin offerings, or ICOs. I shall try to do so, and then some.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of initial coin offering as a term. Neither is the MAS, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which doesn’t call them that. The MAS calls them digital token offerings, which is so much better.

Here’s why.

Initial Public Offerings

Initial coin offering resembles the traditional term initial public offering. An initial public offering is the first time shares of a private company are offered to the public. Think of listings on the stock exchange.

TechLaw.Fest Quick Chats: Matt Pollins, CMS Singapore

By Amelia Chew

On 20th March 2018

In Artificial Intelligence, Contracts, Cybersecurity, Events, Interviews, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation, People

Reading time: 4 minutes

Interview by Utsav Rakshit | Edited by Amelia Chew

This week, LawTech.Asia sat down for a chat with Matt Pollins, Partner at CMS Singapore and CMS “Innovation Champion”. He leads the Commercial and Technology, Media and Communications team. Matt will be speaking at the Tech of Law Exchange on the panel titled Deliberate Disruption: A Tale of Three Law Firm Tech Journeys.

What steps has CMS taken to embrace new technologies?

CMS has been investing in legal technology for the past 20 years. If you rewind to the 90s, CMS first started using platforms like document automation in our Real Estate and Finance practice groups.