New scholarship on
@SSRN
! Still trying to provide the best private-ordering options for DAOs to limit risk while respecting unique nature & endogenous governance priorities. New option: contractarian joint venture
In "The Contractarian Joint Venture,"
@Prof_CarlaReyes
and I offer DAOs pathway to an entity that doesn't have unlimited liability and doesn't issue securities. Proposals: default partnership statute amendment and new Howey/Reves test for crypto assets.
On Monday, my colleagues voted to recommend that SMU give me tenure!
I am so grateful to my colleagues, to my tenure committee, and to all my mentors and friends who have helped me navigate legal academia so far.
And of course, endlessly grateful to my family.
Got word today that the
@SMU
Board of Trustees approved my tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Law
@SMULawSchool
!
My deep thanks to everyone who has mentored me along the way, reviewed papers, gave advice, provided comments at conferences, & to my colleagues!
Some personal/professional news to share: This summer I’ll be moving to
#Dallas
to join the faculty
@SMULawSchool
! I will miss my wonderful colleagues and friends at MSU, but the whole Reyes crew is delighted by this opportunity!
Spending the afternoon reading court decisions about smart contracts and cryptocurrency…and…well, I think I give up…on law. I don’t see how all these bad opinions get fixed in the long run.
Found this poem in my daughter’s school take home folder. Brought me to tears. Plan to frame it and hang it prominently in my office. I hope I can live up to her vision of who I am.
Delighted & honored to have been elected to membership in the
@AmLawInst
! Humbled at the chance to continue work related to the
#UCC
,
#commercial
#law
&
#technology
w/colleagues, mentors, & friends at ALI. Grateful for the opportunity to represent
@SMULawSchool
in this venue.
The American Law Institute has elected new members who will bring their expertise to the Institute's work of clarifying the law through Restatements, Principles, and Model Codes.
I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with the members of
@HouseCommerce
#innovation
,
#data
&
#commerce
subcommittee today. I was even more grateful that my personal hero, my Dad, could be there with me.
Grateful to the American
#Legal
#Technology
Awards for this honor. I am stunned to have been named the winner in the
#education
category. My co-finalists are giants in our field and it was an honor to be named a finalist alongside them. Stunned, humbled, grateful.
It would be super helpful for this analysis if
@GaryGensler
knew how to distinguish between different cryptocurrencies and tokens and understood their widely different technical attributes. Those details are relevant to the investment contract analysis.
Intermediaries for investment contracts are required to comply with securities laws & register with
@SECGov
.
Instead, many crypto platforms are contending that their investment contracts are something else.
The law cares about what something actually is, not what you call it.
I live in this odd space where I don’t fully fit anywhere. AALS annual meetings seriously reinforce the constant feeling that I am an odd duck in academia, & yet, it gives me time with those few colleagues across the country that know the whole me & like me anyway. 1/2
I am humbled and grateful at being appointed by
@GovAbbott
as the Chair of the Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters, and I am delighted to serve in the academic seats on the work group alongside
@TAMULawSchool
's William Henning.
@SMULawSchool
My prediction: Musk is not here to change Twitter. He just wants your data. That is why he cares about bots. Fake data is no good. He needs real person data for his other ventures. Wanna see where changes happen? Watch the TOS and privacy policy.
Bragging on my kids: I have junior Olympians, ya’ll! This weekend at regionals my daughter qualified in the 1500 and 3000, and my son qualified in high jump and turbo jav. It was a super fun weekend hanging at the track in the mornings. On to Las Vegas National Championships!
Dear all: general partnerships are a thing that actually exist. No matter how much you forgot about your BE class in law school. Another way to say general partnership is “for-profit unincorporated association” or “unincorporated association that runs a business.”
Last night, the
@SMULawSchool
Board of Advocates students honored me by electing me to honorary membership in the National Order of Barristers. This is their most cherished achievement & I was incredibly moved by the fact that they would invite me to share in it.
This is simply fantastic. Welcome to
@SMULawSchool
@carlissc
! I am super-excited to work together again. Sending you virtual hugs, high fives and cheers from my kids, and many well wishes!
SMU Law is excited to welcome Carliss Chatman (
@carlissc
) as an associate professor of law, starting fall 2023. Her teaching and scholarship focus on business law, commercial law, and ethics.
Please join us in welcoming Professor Chatman to our faculty!
#PonyUp
Honored, and a bit nervous, to testify before the
@HouseCommerce
#Innovation
#Data
&
#Commerce
Subcommittee tomorrow. I hope to convey the importance of tech neutrality to allow innovation, but emphasize that for
#blockchain
, tech neutrality requires understanding the tech.
On June 7, 2023 at 10 a.m. EST,
@Prof_CarlaReyes
will testify in front of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce.
Watch live:
Proclamations of the death of crypto are much exaggerated. So are the “see, crypto is all centralized and claims of decentralization are lies!” Stop. Celsius is a centralized entity. Celsius is failing…how does that lead to “regulate decentralization out of existence, fools!”?
To encourage continued dialogue & education re: the 2022 UCC Amendments' impact on
#Bitcoin
&
#crypto
, I wrote up a more formal discussion of the dispute re: the definition of "money" in the UCC & the
#commercial
#law
misunderstandings on which it rests:
I am super-excited to be joining
@SMULawSchool
! And the whole Reyes crew is settling in nicely, in large part thanks to the many warm welcomes from my new colleagues!
You guys. This is my Dad. He is my hero. When I need a push, I just think about how strong he is & suck it up (or call him). 6 crushed discs in his spine, open back fracture, chronic asthma & he gets after it every day anyway. If he can, so can I. Plus, I owe him. (That hair tho)
Please, law-makers, stop grandstanding about crypto and only pass laws if you understand what you are saying. This may be the worst proposed blockchain related bill I have ever seen, and clearly evidences a lack of understanding of how the tech works:
As I testified before the House earlier this year, we really need a quality, impartial and formalized education program around
#blockchain
#tech
to be available to law and policy makers everywhere.
Crypto companies are spending millions building an army of former defense and law enforcement officials to lobby against new rules shutting down crypto-financed terrorism. This revolving door boosts the crypto industry, but endangers our national security.
Dear
@MSULaw
students and
#lawstudents
everywhere: Let’s work together to make sure we enjoy a little work life balance this semester. As a student, if you don’t make a habit of self care now, it will only get harder not easier to do so later. Trust me, I know from experience.
I don’t brag about them on this platform as much as they deserve, but my kids are moving on to regionals in the quest to the
@AAUTrackNField
Junior Olympic Games, y’all! One advanced in the 3000, 1500, & 800, & the other advanced in high jump & turbo jav. They are so excited!
Delighted to make my new article, titled Autonomous Corporate Personhood, and forthcoming in the
@WashLawReview
publicly available! Many thanks to everyone who has given comments on this piece!
The 2022 UCC Amendments help promote stability & predictability in commercial transactions related to a variety of cryptocurrencies (whether intrinsic, non-intrinsic, NFT, or otherwise). A thread clarifying some of the critiques by
@theblaze
's Daniel Horowitz &
@1MarkMoss
1/n
Beyond excited to share my paper "Creating Cryptolaw for the Uniform Commercial Code," forthcoming with the
@WLULawReview
! The paper uses
@LexonDigital
tools to build a smart-contract based Article 9 filing system:
Excited to make publicly available a new article on use of autonomous and automating technologies in business, Autonomous Business Reality, forthcoming in Volune 21 of
@NevLawJournal
!
Comments welcome:
Got a couple of new papers up on SSRN: First: “Uncovering Elon’s Data Empire” co-authored with my
@SMULawSchool
colleague
@carlissc
and forthcoming as part of the
@stetsonlaw
symposium on Elon Musk. 1/3
Pro tip: if you want to write an accurate description of
#emerging
#technology
, it is probably best to not exclusively quote from and rely on statements and writings from federal and international regulatory institutions.
I am honored to be named an Am. Legal Tech. Award Finalist for Education! Humbled to be named alongside colleagues in the academy that I admire and look up to. Will keep striving to bring innovative teaching and research in
#law
&
#tech
to
@SMULawSchool
Thrilled to announce that this essay will be published with the Northwestern Law Review Online! My hope is that doing so will further encourage continued dialogue and combat existing misunderstandings of the 2022
#UCC
Amendments.
To encourage continued dialogue & education re: the 2022 UCC Amendments' impact on
#Bitcoin
&
#crypto
, I wrote up a more formal discussion of the dispute re: the definition of "money" in the UCC & the
#commercial
#law
misunderstandings on which it rests:
But, when regulation fails, it is way easier to blame crypto. So forget that this is regulated activity and regulation failed to stop the problem…just blame “crypto” and wave your hands like you know what that word means. This whole thing is more fuel for my essay.
CFTC and Democrats were palling around with SBF, suing DAOs and devs, decrying the scourge of DeFi and plotting to regulate websites and wallet APIs while FTX played with customer money.
Madoff and Enron were fully SEC regulated.
Regulators do not protect us, period.
“Autonomous Corporate Personhood” is in here! I can’t speak highly enough if my
@WashLawReview
publication experience. My deepest thanks to the whole team!
Now published: Volume 96, Issue 4 of Washington Law Review! Watch here for Article and Comment highlights over the next few weeks—or, read the issue now on our website: .
Thrilled that this article found a home with
@WashLawReview
! My experience with their editors was exceptional and I recommend working with them if you have the opportunity! My deep thanks to the entire law review team!
In our December issue, Carla Reyes (
@Prof_CarlaReyes
) examines the artificial rights of corporations and artificial intelligence and argues that a comprehensive approach must consider artificial rights through a systems lens. Read more on our website: .
Dear
#blockchain
folks everywhere: “code is law” as coined by
@LarryLessig
does not mean what you think it means. Please read Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace before you use that phrase again to preserve my sanity.
Grateful for the extremely helpful feedback today from the participants of this workshop!
Also grateful that “Creating Cryptolaw for the Uniform Commercial Code” has found a home with
@WLULawReview
!
Promise to give you all a look at the paper via SSRN soon!
Today’s productivity goal: 7,000 words written.
Today’s productivity achievement: 7,000 pieces of laundry washed (at least that is what it felt like).
That still counts, right?
#lawprof
life but also
#momlife
Delighted to have had the opportunity to discuss the 2022
#UCC
Amendments, the recent misunderstandings about what they do, & my research (even the old stuff) with
@JacobRobinsonJD
on the Law of Code podcast. Thanks so much for the invitation!
Update! “The Contractarian Joint Venture” written with
@SMULawSchool
colleague
@ProfChristyHurt
is now forthcoming in the
@AlaLawReview
! Looking forward to working with them to bring the article to print!
New scholarship on
@SSRN
! Still trying to provide the best private-ordering options for DAOs to limit risk while respecting unique nature & endogenous governance priorities. New option: contractarian joint venture
It is reprint day! Super-excited to receive the print version of my article relating to use of
#terms
in
#law
and
#tech
and why recognizing technical differences among what people casually refer to broadly as “cryptoassets” should impact policy priorities and shape legal rules.
My deep thanks to those of you, you know who you are, who know me for reals and poured some time into me this week. You have helped me refresh and set my shoulders square so I can be successful in the Spring term. You are why I attend AALS at all!
Why does everyone talk about the legal space for crypto as the “Wild West” still? That was back in 2011, when I first started lawyering in this space.
Sigh. Perhaps I am just old.
You guys. Everything about this is crazy. Especially when we think about how regulators held SBF out as the example to follow and when we read recent news reports of the poor kid who just got overwhelmed. That is not what this was.
Headed to
#AALS2019
to discuss Autonomous Corporate Personhood at the New Voices in Business Law WIP session tomorrow. Grateful to
@ProfPadfield
& Usha Rodrigues for serving as commenters.
#businesslaw
&
#tech
at
#AALS
Thrilled to announce that
@MSULaw
joined the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium
@ConsortiumLegal
! Looking forward to leveraging our
@LegalRnD
expertise and program to help build standards for using blockchain in the legal industry. More at:
Just printed out all 13 chapters, the capstones and appendix to start proofing this labor of love before it goes out to reviewers. We’re one current events chapter away from a complete draft. @ Charlottesville, Virginia
Some of the recent cool work happening as collaborations between lawyers & devs in the
#crypto
space makes me re-consider if I shouldn’t return to practice where cool stuff happens.
If anyone is doing
#epic
sh*t & wouldn’t mind the help of an “academic”…please keep me in mind
Many of you have asked what I've been working on in recent months.
It's called MetaLeX.
Signifying a movement beyond (μετα-) law (-lex), MetaLeX is devoted to cybernetic law solutions co-developed by devs and lawyers to fuse autonomous software with legal structures.
Look what arrived recently! Reprints of my recent co-authored article with
@DukeLawTech
’s Jeff Ward! Many thanks to the editors of
@NevLawJournal
’s editors for their diligent efforts during a difficult pandemic year!
Digital version available here:
Grateful to
@ltrc
for including me in this year’s list of honorees. In the short interview at the link below, I want to highlight my thanks to and work with my friends and colleagues Jeff Ward of
@DukeLawTech
@GreatRescission
of
@WakeForest
and
@hdiedrich
of Lexon.
Carla Reyes (
@Prof_CarlaReyes
) | Director of Michigan State University’s Center of Law & Innovation and LegalRnD Lab
Get to know your stellar 2020 Women of Legal Tech.
More about Carla's work:
#LTRC
#LTT
#LegalTech
Super-grateful to
@sealslawschools
for the opportunity to work with
@PlezEsqProf
as co-chairs of the prospective teachers workshop, & promise to do my utmost to live up to the legacy left by those before us: including
@LCGrinvald
and
@bradareheart
, to whom I personally owe much.
Regulation and public law rely so heavily on intermediaries as the object of regulation that it falters when an intermediary does not exist. So what to do? Apparently, just pretend on exists… 1/2
My son was sad to see me go to a conference after having the break at home…so
#AALS2023
, please welcome this shark as your newest colleague. Kind of like Flat Stanley,he will be making cameos at the conference the next few days.
SMU Law is thrilled to welcome
@ProfSautter
as professor of law, starting fall 2023. Her teaching and scholarship focus on corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, and transactional law.
Please join us in welcoming her to our faculty!
#PonyUp
🎉 We are thrilled to announce the addition of two distinguished professors to IC3! Warmly welcoming Prof. Carla Reyes
@Prof_CarlaReyes
from
@SMU
and Prof. Will Cong
@WillCong2
from
@Cornell
. Their invaluable expertise in blockchain will propel our research to greater heights!
Had a lot of fun talking about the issues I’ve been working in both through research and advocacy work. Thanks to
@TheAALS
,
@SMULawSchool
and
@EricChaffee
for the opportunity!
Fantastic presentation by
@Prof_CarlaReyes
on the intersection between corporate law and
#DeFi
/ OpenSource software.
Ooki Dai v CFCTC
Tornado Cash v Ofac
#AALS2024
If there is mass non-compliance and clear rules of the road, like, what have I been doing for a job since 2011?
This kind of politicized statement makes me worry about the value of law at all. I am so tired of the woefully inaccurate sound bites.
Let’s be clear: The problem isn’t ambiguity – it’s mass non-compliance, &
#crypto
companies can’t be let off the hook.
🚨 We shouldn’t invent new accommodating reg. structures simply b/c crypto companies refuse to follow clear rules of the road. 🚨
📺:
To anyone who has helped kill the UCC Amendments entirely in a state for ideological reasons alone, congratulations! All you’ve managed to do is make it so that when people need to use Bitcoin and other crypto as an alternative to a CBDC, they will suffer a higher cost of capital
I feel like I spent the last year of my life writing scholarship telling law makers to understand crypto before they made bad laws….never occurred to me that I should be telling law-makers to understand EXISTING LAW before they vetoed good proposals.
I VETOED HB 1193. This bill adopts a definition of ‘money’ to specifically exclude crypto like Bitcoin. And it opens the door to the risk that the federal government could adopt a Central Bank Digital Currency.
South Dakota will always stand for Economic Freedom.
Posted a new article on SSRN today, which is forthcoming in
@pennlaw
’s Journal of Law & Innovation, titled: Emerging Tech’s Language Wars: AI and Criminal Justice. Pre-publication draft is available here:
Any other
#law
#prof
out there hold it together until the end of term and then find their health take a nose dive off a cliff as soon as they turn in their exam?
Kicking off
@sealslawschools
Annual Meeting Day 2 with mock job talks for the workshoppers at
#PLTW
2023.
@PlezEsqProf
and I trying to fill
@LCGrinvald
’s shoes. She left a legacy with this program and we hope to steward it well!
I was humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to the efforts of the
@uniformlaws
@AmLawInst
joint study committee on UCC and emerging
#tech
, even if in only a small way! Thanks so much for having me!
The
@uniformlaws
@AmLawInst
Joint Study Committee on the UCC and Emerging Technologies has a big job on its hands, so many thanks to
@Prof_CarlaReyes
for her amazingly detailed yet accessible presentation this afternoon on how blockchain and smart contracts work!
I am honored, humbled and grateful to be included on
@ltrc
’s
#womenoflegaltech
2020 list, alongside so many leaders in the field that I admire. Many thanks to everyone whose help along the way made this possible.
Me: I'll get up at 6 to finish these article revisions for the
@NevLawJournal
before the house wakes up. *And I actually do wake up*
My 8 year old who slept until 9:30 the last 3 days in a row: "Hi Mom, it is 6:30 and I just can't sleep any more. Let's make hot cocoa."
Really looking forward to the Summit this week. I feel privileged that it is right here in my backyard. An exciting time to be a person in the blockchain ecosystem in Texas!
My thanks to
@TXblockchain_
& the Summit organizers for including me in the discussion on DAOs Friday.
We are thrilled to reveal that
@Prof_CarlaReyes
will be speaking at the Texas Blockchain Summit this year.
Join us in Fort Worth, TX, from November 15th to 17th.
Secure your spot for the Summit here:
Looking forward to having you there!
The official version is out! This article, inspired by a tweeted challenge from
@Prof_Bruckner
uses
@LexonDigital
to propose a prototype
#ucc
-1 filing system out of
#smartcontracts
many thanks to everyone who provided comments and encouragement along the way!
Since it is that time of year again when misunderstandings of the
#UCC
abound in legislative discussions, it seems fitting that my essay “Emerging Technology’s Unfamiliarity with Commercial Law” is now published and available with
@NwULRev
Online:
Was grateful to
@CoinDesk
for the opportunity to shed some light on what is actually going on with the
#CBDC
changes to the Florida
#UCC
. Spoiler Alert: the new law does not ban CBDC from use in Florida. It does not do much of anything positive, really.
Florida
@GovRonDeSantis
signed a bill to prohibit CBDCs.
However, "it actually doesn't prohibit the actual use of central bank digital currencies in Florida," argues
@Prof_CarlaReyes
.
Watch more, presented by
@trondao
:
SMU Dedman School of Law is thrilled to welcome six extraordinary scholars to our faculty. Their areas of interest include environmental law, legal research and writing, intellectual property, trademark law, securities law and more.
Read:
It brings me much joy when a student reaches out from their job to say how much they appreciate the memos and other work we do in BE because it prepped them for the very thing their supervisor asked them to do!
#realworldprep
Dear crypto industry players who have been following commercial law developments Ike the UCC reform. Would you be willing to provide some info to assist in a parallel international effort? Please DM me and I will send you a survey.
Two print releases in one week! “Autonomous Business Reality” is now in print! Many thanks to the editors of the
@NevLawJournal
for their fantastic work during a very difficult academic year! Available at
Coaching 3 fantastic students representing
@SMULawSchool
at
#30vismoot
in Vienna, Austria. So grateful to
@HKAGlobal
for their support of the Board of Advocates, which made this opportunity possible. Looking forward to a week of
#CISG
& debating whether drones are aircraft