Clyde & Co has launched a consultancy to provide clients with legal and technical advice on the growing new area of smart contracts, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. 

Called Clyde Code, the consultancy will provide services including smart contract creation, existing contract enhancement, contract verification, contract enforcement and dispute resolution, and forensic investigations in relation to smart contract failures. 

The firm explains smart contracts as coded instructions which execute on the occurrence of an event, often using a blockchain or other related technology to record and enact it. For example, smart contracts allow for insurance monies to be transferred virtually immediately on the occurrence of an event – such as travel insurance paying out following a flight delay. 

Gary Nuttall, an independent consultant, will serve as Clyde Code’s lead technical consultant. He will be supported by Team Blockchain, the independent advisory group where he is a founding partner. 

A Clyde & Co team led by partners Lee Bacon and Nigel Brook in London, Sally Sfeir Tait in Abu Dhabi, and Christina Terplan in San Francisco will handle the legal aspect of the consultancy’s counsel and services. 

“Blockchain provides the rails that smart contracts run on, and together, they have the potential to radically change and simplify legal contracts and transactions,” said Lee Bacon, a partner at the firm, in a statement. “But legal and technical advice is needed to ensure that workable agreements are reached and enforced.”