Accord Project Expands, Welcoming More Global Law Firms

NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Accord Project is delighted to announce the addition of several global law firms and organizations as new members and collaborators. Magic Circle firm, Clifford Chance is joined by Perkins Coie, Steptoe & Johnson, Pinsent Masons, Allens, and Baker Donelson in joining the growing membership of the Accord Project to assist in the development of industry-wide technology for smart legal contracts.

The Accord Project is a community initiative to develop an industry-led specification and open source technology and for smart legal contracts based off industry-driven requirements for transactional legal practice and dispute resolution and counts leading enterprise blockchain platforms such IBM Blockchain, R3's Corda, Symbiont, and Sweetbridge amongst its partners and collaborators.

Peter Hunn, Founder of the Accord Project said: "The latest members to join the Accord Project represent the growing importance of the Project to the legal community. These new memberships are an important addition to other recent developments at the Project, such as the release of our legal domain-specific language and flagship technology partnerships with IBM and R3. We look forward to working together as the industry continues to support the adoption of this technology."

Commenting on joining the Project, Bas Boris Visser, Global Head of Innovation and Business Change and a Partner in the Finance & Capital Markets practice of Clifford Chance in Amsterdam, said: "If we want to help our clients realise the great potential that technology like smart contract brings we need to collectively create a legal framework to make that happen. For us as a firm this is a key priority so we are thrilled to join the Accord Project with a team of lawyers from our offices in New York and Washington. For us the Accord Project is a great example of true collaboration and a fantastic opportunity for our lawyers to both contribute and learn. A clear win-win."

Michael Henson, of Perkins Coie's Blockchain Technology & Digital Currency industry group, said: "We are excited to contribute to the Accord Project and to have an impact in the development of best practices surrounding the implementation of smart legal contracts.  Perkins Coie was the first legal practice focused on decentralized cryptocurrencies and shared ledger technologies and is committed to deepening its engagement with industry leaders in this rapidly evolving space.  We recognize a need to address legal uncertainties in the industry by defining standards, and the Accord Project provides an ideal platform for us to contribute to such efforts."

Dan Nossa, head of Steptoe & Johnson's Blockchain and Digital Assets practice group said: "We are excited to work with the Accord Project on exploring and developing standards for smart legal contracts.  The tremendous potential for this technology can best be realized through the collaborative efforts of lawyers, business people and technologists.  The Accord Project can play an important role in laying the foundation for the responsible and meaningful adoption of smart legal contracts."

Orlando Conetta, Head of SmartDelivery at Pinsent Masons, commented: "The Accord Project is an excellent opportunity for the legal industry to convene on the difficult problems to be solved towards computable contracts. The vision, to couple the legal drafting process with that of the coding cycle, is both bold and timely, and we are delighted to be a part of that journey."

Anna Collyer, Head of Innovation at Allens said: "Establishing best practice for the use of smart legal contracts and other ways in which we can innovate to deliver better solutions for clients is really exciting. We're very pleased to collaborate with other leading law firms through the Accord Project on digital developments within the law."

Chris Sloan, leader of the Firm's Blockchain & Cryptocurrency team, said, "Baker Donelson has a longstanding commitment to being on the forefront of innovation in the legal industry. With blockchain poised to become an integral part of how our clients do business, we're proud to join with the Accord Project in this innovative collaboration, and we look forward to helping lead the way in the development of smart contract standards."

About the Accord Project

The Accord Project is the organization for the development of techno-legal specifications for smart legal contracts and distributed ledger applications in the legal industry. The purpose of the Project is to enable lawyers, law firms, trade associations, and corporates to help establish open implementations for the future of contracting; and to produce open-source code for smart legal contracts and distributed ledger usage in the legal industry. The Project operates in collaboration with IEEE, the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, Hyperledger, R3, Decentralized Identity Foundation, and a number of leading trade associations, industry and standards organizations, and world leading law firms. To learn more about the Accord Project, visit the website, follow on Twitter, and use and contribute to the open source code on Github.

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SOURCE Accord Project

Related Links

http://www.accordproject.org