Philip Freedman, Chairman of innovative UK law firm Mishcon de Reya, has been appointed as the chair of a new working group for the real estate and construction industries launched by The Accord Project, the smart legal contract consortium co-created by Clause. The addition of this new working group, which focuses on real estate and construction, is a valuable addition to the Accord Project’s existing groups in areas such as supply chain, financial services, and dispute resolution.
Other working group announcements are expected shortly. The news follows a big couple of weeks for smart contracts, with Clause partnering with LegalZoom and RocketLawyer partnering with OpenLaw.
Freedman said of the new role: ‘As part of Mishcon’s 10 year vision, we aspire to use technology to do our work faster and better, and so are pleased to be chairing the Real Estate and Construction Working Group. Our industry is poised for the biggest change in years, with a number of fast growing technologies that will drastically change the way we do legal work.’
‘To change the nature of legal contracts from static, text-based, documents to data-driven components that interact with business systems and work cross-sector is no small feat and requires an industry-led effort. We hope other law firms and professionals take the opportunity to join, and look forward to working with the Accord Project and our fellow collaborators to bring forward proof of concepts that will accelerate progress in this area,’ he added.
The group will ‘focus on issues such as developing and establishing compliant and secure frameworks for the various participants involved in real estate and construction transactions’, and smart legal contracts that are adapted to work with the rules, regulations, and practices of the industry.
Houman Shadab, co-director of the Accord Project, concluded: ‘The Working Group and its world class leadership are very welcome and timely additions to the Accord Project given the document heavy, manually intensive processes, and lack of common frameworks that characterize the real estate and construction industries.’
“To change the nature of legal contracts from static, text-based, documents to data-driven components that interact with business systems and work cross-sector”
Just what we need to do with leases