You already know I’m fascinated by tech trends, personally and professionally, and that I keep a close eye on how those trends are going to affect my business and my clients’.

So you’ve probably already noticed that I’m enthusiastic about blockchain and its potential to make almost every type of real estate transaction and investment faster, simpler, and more efficient.  It does that in part by eliminating the middleman.

In real estate today, every transaction, every change in zoning or registration, as well as inheritance, change of ownership, and more requires legal assistance.  Legal advisors are crucial. How many people do you know who bought or sold a property without the help of an attorney? Probably none.

Blockchain is poised to change all that.

Smart Contracts make tedious tasks automatic

Once governments approve the transfer of land and property registries onto a blockchain-based infrastructure – something that’s already been successfully piloted and rolled out in a number of jurisdictions – many, many of these tedious tasks will be executed automatically.

So the big question you might be wondering about is – are we still going to need lawyers?

You’ve probably guessed from my enthusiasm that the answer is a resounding yes.

Lawyers will still play a role in this industry, but that role will definitely be shifting somewhat.

Where lawyers today often serve as a go-between during every stage of a transaction, blockchain allows for smart contracts, which create essentially self-executing transactions.  This is the much-touted feature that helps make blockchain-based transactions so efficient and also far less expensive.

So that leaves lawyers to create the contracts themselves.  Lawyers’ roles will shift to mainly originating and setting up the transaction and ensuring that the transacting parties are protected.

Once the parties’ lawyers have established the groundwork, the system will put the contract in motion, requiring minimal legal assistance throughout the nitty-gritty stages of the deal.

Why Smart Contracts won’t put me out of business

For me as a lawyer, I see this development as a win-win.  Lawyers will have time to take on more interesting cases, become more involved in deal origination, as well as handling exceptional situations that don’t necessarily fit the standard mold.

Real estate is just one area in which the role of lawyers is going to be changing over the next few years.  I’m certain we’ll start seeing changes in other industries, too. As IBM CEO Ginni Rometty has said, “What the internet did for communications, blockchain will do for trusted transactions.”  For instance, it could easily revolutionize the role of IP lawyers through a distributed ledger system which tracks patent and IP registries, regulating and ensuring fair application of licensing and rights throughout a patent’s entire life cycle.

I’m not the only one paying attention to this trend, of course.  Many forward-thinking law firms are now creating in-house departments to focus on smart contracts.  And other companies are emerging at the intersection of law and tech, working hand in hand with lawyers on the creation, oversight, and streamlining of smart contracts development and technology.

Key players in the Smart Contracts future

Two players doing that right now are the UK-based Mattereum and the Russia-based Emery Capital, which is working on smart contracts to streamline the legal process.

According to Emery partner Ivan Podmasko, blockchain enables “new mechanisms for capital management through smart contracts on distributed ledgers.”  According to Podmasko, smart contracts will streamline and simplify the process of raising and circulating capital because both money and securities will use a single digital carrier of information – blockchain.

Equally exciting is Mattereum, which offers human moderation for smart contracts where needed, and was launched in collaboration with William Shatner.  Forbes says the actor is “hooked on cryptocurrency and blockchain.”  Tying his blockchain activities in with his science-fiction past, Shatner says that the transfer of property will become far simpler and more intuitive thanks to Mattereum’s tech:  “humanity, once it imagines something, is inspired to make it concrete.”

These are just two examples of what’s going on, but there’s so much more that I could write about here.  I’ll be sure to update on all the most important trends as they’re happening.

Why all of this matters to me – and to you

As a potential buyer, seller, or investor in real estate, you might not have to keep your ear to the ground in the same way I do.

But these changes will affect all of us, probably sooner than you think.  So when you’re considering any real estate development, investment, or any other kind of transaction, you’ll want to make sure you work with professional who are aware of the latest developments in the field.

Keeping up with technology and its potential lets me, as a lawyer, ensure that my services stay as relevant as ever.  In my opinion, this shift from being paper-pushers to being deal-starters and high-tech innovators will give lawyers the opportunity to originate business deals instead of only facilitating them.

That means lawyers will still have a key role even while real-estate transactions become ever faster and more efficient for all parties involved.