Did You Know? Blockchain + Cheese

Did you know that the first international commercial transaction to use the blockchain as a verification mechanism was for cheese?

Back in September, Irish cheese cooperative Ornua (purveyors of Kerrygold for those hip to the know here in Wisconsin), sold a $100,000 letter of credit for cheese and butter to Seychelles Trading Company using the blockchain.

How did it work? The blockchain is a secure and inherently authenticated record-keeping mechanism. Thus, much of the lengthy contract due diligence of confirming who the parties are is short-cut merely by using the system. Second, now that the parties are authenticated, secure documents can be transferred digitally. Finally, the transaction is posted to the blockchain ensuring transparency and confirmation of the transaction.

[S]uch transactions typically involve a complicated paper trail that requires international courier services, is vulnerable to document fraud, and can take as long as a month to be completed. ... [U]sing blockchain technology, [] a process that normally takes between seven and 10 days [was cut] to less than four hours

Non-Lawyering Skills for Lawyers

Technology is and will continue to disrupt the practice of law for transactional attorneys. Where the focus of legal education has been on the fundamental building blocks of legal thinking and, to some extent, legal drafting, the latter skill is likely to be less and less necessary as technology improves.

Technological innovation in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Encryption, Blockchain, and bot interaction are likely to change the nature of the provision of legal services. Clients will no longer need lawyers to draft documents or provide recitation of statutes or manage deadlines - all things that are susceptible to automation. However, these technologies rely on concepts such as modularity and community organizing to build models and create consensus to implement industry standards.

The role for lawyers will stop being drafters, and being instead counselors. Being a counselor requires skills such as understanding organizational dynamics, strategic planning, project management, and operational scheduling. None of these subjects are currently taught in any law school that I am aware of.

I propose that we to our teaching schedule a class (or two or three) in Non-Lawyering Skills for Lawyers, with subjects like:

• Community Organizing 
• Programming/Software Development 
• Project Management 
• Strategic Planning 
• Interpersonal Communication 
• Organizational Dynamics and Structure 
• Customer-oriented Design