R3's Legal Center of Excellence: Empowering Lawyers in Blockchain Education

R3’s Bold Step into the Legal Arena

The R3 Blockchain consortium, a powerful force in the financial technology landscape, has made a splash today by announcing the establishment of its Legal Center of Excellence (LCoE). This initiative is set to bring together a team of ten esteemed law firms with the noble goal of educating legal professionals globally about the rapidly evolving world of Blockchain technologies.

Meet the Legal Dream Team: Ten Firms Join Forces

So, who are these legal eagles swooping in to tackle Blockchain education? Here’s the roster:

Ashurst
Baker McKenzie
Clifford Chance
Crowell & Moring
Fasken
Holland & Knight
Perkins Coie
Shearman & Sterling
Stroock

These firms will not only gain knowledge but will also participate in a series of workshops designed to keep them sharp on the latest developments in Blockchain. Who says lawyers can’t have fun while learning?

Partners in Innovation: R3 and Amazon Web Services

R3 has been at the forefront of Blockchain innovation since the launch of its Corda platform back in 2015. In a recent strategic move, R3 teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer the Corda distributed ledger on the AWS marketplace. This partnership opens up exciting opportunities for users to both develop and deploy decentralized applications (DApps) in an environment that’s as friendly as your favorite local coffee shop (minus the overpriced lattes).

Training and Resources: A Bonanza for Lawyers

If you think the legal landscape is devoid of fun, think again! The LCoE will enable participating law firms to engage in Corda training workshops and provide them access to R3’s extensive Blockchain research. Every month, the firms will be treated to eye-opening project demonstrations that highlight real-world applications of Blockchain. It’s like a legal version of “Show and Tell” but with much more thrilling tech!

Bridging Law and Technology: A New Era

Richard Gendal Brown, CTO at R3, emphasizes the need for legal professionals to navigate the growing complexities surrounding Blockchain’s legal and regulatory status. Brown highlights a key feature of Corda: its ability to connect ‘human-language’ legal documents directly to smart contract code. It’s a marriage of law and tech that could mean fewer legal missteps and more efficient transactions.

“The LCoE will allow R3 to directly engage with the lawyers that will be advising on and helping draft the smart contracts used by the network of Corda users across the globe.” — Richard Gendal Brown

The formation of the LCoE mirrors the strategy adopted by the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), which has established itself as a juggernaut in the open-source Blockchain arena. With the LCoE, R3 aims not just to keep pace, but to set the standard in marrying Blockchain innovation with robust legal understanding.