Legal resources for developers

This project aims to build a network of lawyers to create contract templates and provide legal guidance to the developer community.

Legal teaching, director of projects to create educational resources, network building, blockchain stack developer.

The rapidly growing community of Cardano developers are creating an impressive number of innovative systems and tools. The remarkable diversity of projects gives rise to a problem. How can the need for a wide range legal expertise be met in a cost effective way?

Here is a small sample of the legal questions the developer community faces. What kinds of templates are needed for a wide range of smart contracts for the sale of homes, cars, insurance and loans? What safeguards are needed to protect the privacy of personal information in DIDs? What do DeFi dApp developers need to do in order to meet legal requirements governing securities and loans? How to effectively advocate for reasonable blockchain policy?

Legal expertise is expensive. How can we meet the growing needs of the developer community in a cost effective manner--especially for projects that are in the early stages of growth?

The aim of this project is to create a network of lawyers and law students able to supply a pool of legal expertise for the growing developer community. Some projects need a little legal input. Others need well formulated contract templates. Whiles others may need to add legal expertise to their teams.

Many young lawyers are attracted to the practice of law because they believe legal advocacy has the power to help realize a fairer world. In this vein, many lawyers who are largely unaware of the potential of the smart contracts will naturally be excited to learn about the vision being articulated by leaders in the blockchain ecosystem--such as Charles Hoskinson--for building economic and social tools that will create new opportunities and help level the playing field for all. We aim to draw these lawyers and law students into the Cardano Catalyst community and help connect them with developers running projects.

Our team will create a set of online tutorials for lawyers and law students to introduce them to the legal questions that arise in the context of different types of developer projects. Educational resources are needed to bring a growing network of individuals having expertise in diverse areas of law up to speed about the rapidly developing smart contract ecosystem. The project aims to build a network supported by a broad range of social media resources to help lawyers connect with Cardano developers. In turn, collaborative legal research by the legal network will empower the community to advocate effectively for reasonable policy reforms.

Lead members of the team:

• Jeff Downard, J.D., Ph.D., >25 years teaching jurisprudence, contracts, legal reasoning and theories of justice.
• Sarah Holcomb, J.D., L.L.M., > 10 years teaching business and corporate law. More than 20 years practicing trusts, estates and tax law.
• Tom Dietrich, J.D. > 15 years practicing contracts, IP, business law.
• David Watts, M.S., experience teaching writing, mathematics. Current focus on blockchain full stack development.

Project deliverables and budget:

Phase 1:

• Months 1-3:  outreach to lawyers through national and state bar associations: ($3000)
• Months 1-3:  outreach to law students through LSDAS and law student associations: ($3000)
• Months 2-4:  organize and host a series of eight legal workshops on a range of topics based on input from the developer community. The workshops will be hosted on Zoom with recordings available on project Youtube channel. ($5,000 per workshop)
• Months 2-4:  develop an interactive website for interested lawyers and law students. The website will draw on social media that fosters the growth of a network of individuals having a broad range of areas of legal expertise. ($3,000)
• Months 2-4: create and edit a series of high quality educational videos of lawyers and law students to bring them up to speed on the legal issues that arise for developers creating dApps for smart contracts. ($10,000)
• Months 3-4: create a set of sample contract templates as models based on input from developer community about most important needs: ($8,000)
• Months 2-4: sponsor essay competition for law students to write white papers for publication in leading blockchain and public policy journals on legal questions of concern to the developer community. (five prizes: $4000)  
• Months 1-4:  project leadership ($12,000)
• Months 1-4:  oversight by Kepler SCS board of advisors ($10,000)
• Months 1-4:  outreach to lawyers and law students serving as staff and advisors at state and federal level to bring about better crypto and smart contract policy ($5,000) 
• Budget total for Phase 1:  $98,000
• Months 5-9: transition to Phase 2 of the project

Our team is committed to the effective use of Catalyst funds to support the developer community. Towards this end, we are implementing procedural safeguards in the form of oversight by a board of advisors with a wide range of areas of expertise in finance, accounting, startups and IP. The board will provide oversight and auditing functions as a guarantee.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn7mp5BXNH3pWkHtM85Z3rA/videos

https://www.keplerscs.com/our-team-1

References:

Blakemore, Pippa. Networking for lawyers. Lulu. com, 2011.

Kullack, Arabella. "Early career lawyers: How to get connected: Online and face-to-face." Proctor, The 35, no. 5 (2015): 30.

Schuele, Susi. "Social Networking for Lawyers-The Lawyer's Guide to Making Friends." GPSolo 26 (2009): 40.

Stephen, Jessica. "Few lawyers make most of opportunities online." Wisconsin Law Journal (2015).