Where are the #legaltech #law and #ai folks at?

These are early observations. But the direction is fascinating--contracts evolving from text to executable systems

Would love to hear others' thoughts on this

Some potential implications:

• New agreement structures
• Different drafting skills
• Novel enforcement mechanisms

For lawyers, this might mean learning to think in:

• Logical flows
• State transitions
• Executable conditions

A shift from prose to process/outcomes

Most interesting question: What new legal forms emerge when we design for machines first?

Not just automated contracts. Native digital agreements.

This raises all sorts of questions:

What happens when:

• Contracts self-execute
• Terms auto-adjust
• Compliance self-verifies

This is where I think legal is heading. We're not just digitizing contracts - we're creating a new language that bridges human intent and machine execution

I don't think this covers all or even most areas of law

But certainly some, and maybe some of the most valuable work

There are parallels in modern software development

As I understand it, engineers don't write assembly code anymore. They write in high-level languages that compile down to machine code

Why? Because we created abstractions that let humans think at their natural level while machines execute

Picture this: A contract where the core logic exists as executable code, but with an intuitive interface that lets humans understand and modify the underlying relationships

The execution layer becomes the master agreement layer

Human language becomes the annotation layer

I think we could see a total inversion from traditional contracting

Instead of thinking about human language that machines can understand, we will see machine-executable logic that humans can grasp

3. Execution layer
- smart contract components
- automated settlement systems

1. Master Agreement layer
- sets the fundamental relationship parameters
- defines core frameworks
- establishes dispute resolution

2. Operational layer
- real-time data feeds from market sources
- API connections to pricing services
- automated calculation engines

We've already seen something like this in the most complex financial services agreements

[Warning: I am not a derivatives lawyer, could be totally wrong about this, but here's my understanding]

Take a complex derivatives agreement. They are structured as multi-layered system

We could see a similar evolution in:

• Supply chain contracts
• Service agreements
• Data licensing

The machine-readable versions could become primary. The human-readable versions are secondary.

Every time we write a service level agreement (SLA), we're essentially creating three things:

1. A human-readable promise
2. A machine-measurable metric
3. A bridge between these two worlds

Look at a standard SaaS agreement:

• Payment schedules
• SLA requirements
• Usage limits
• Renewal terms

Each clause is essentially a machine instruction wrapped in legal language