Carla L. Reyes

Headshot of Carla L. Reyes, faculty member at 51做厙 Dedman School of Law.

Associate Professor of Law

Full-time faculty

Email

carla.reyes@smu.edu

Carla L. Reyes is an Associate Professor of Law at 51做厙 Dedman School of Law. Professor Reyes is a nationally and internationally recognized leader on issues raised by the intersection of business law and technology. Professor Reyes is a Faculty Fellow at the 51做厙 Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity at the 51做厙 Lyle School of Engineering, and serves as a faculty affiliate with the Initative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) and the University College London Centre for Blockchain Research. Professor Reyes also currently serves as the Research Director for the Uniform Law Commission’s Technology Committee, an Associate Research Director of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code, and an Expert Member of the UNIDROIT Work Group on Best Practices for Effective Enforcement.

Professor Reyes’ scholarship has been published in law journals at George Washington, William & Mary, Washington & Lee, Wisconsin, University of Washington, and Fordham. She is the co-author of Business Organizations: An Experiential Approach (Carolina Academic Press 2022, with Carliss Chatman). She has presented her research at international conferences in Italy, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Australia, and Columbia, as well as at law schools across the country such as Yale, Harvard, University of Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern University, and Cardozo, among others.

Professor Reyes has been an integral participant in legal reform efforts related to blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. Professor Reyes served as an Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission and American Law Institute 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code, served as an Expert Member of the UNIDROIT Work Group on Private Law and Digital Assets which drafted UNIDROIT principles designed to serve as starting point for legal harmonization of commercial law rules for digital assets, and served as Chair of the Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters.

Professor Reyes’ has received several honors for her work. She was named an American Bar Foundation Fellow in June 2021 and named one of the Women of Legal Tech 2020, an honor bestowed by the American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center. Additionally, she received the 2023 American Legal Technology Award in Education and was elected to the American Law Institute in December 2023. Prior to joining 51做厙 Dedman School of Law, Professor Reyes served Michigan State University College of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law, Technology & Innovation, and taught Business Enterprises, Technology Transactions, Artificial Intelligence & the Law, and Blockchain Law & Policy. Prior to teaching law, Professor Reyes practiced law as an associate in the Blockchain Technology and Digital Currency industry group at Perkins Coie LLP.

A former Fulbright Scholar, Professor Reyes had the opportunity to pursue her research as a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University from September 2017-August 2019. Professor Reyes also actively contributes to blockchain technology initiatives at the Stanford CodeX as a RegTrax Curator, MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems program, and the American Bar Association.

Area of expertise

  • Commercial Law
  • Corporate Law
  • Law and Technology as it relates to Blockchain Technology and Artificial Intelligence

Education

B.A., summa cum laude, Whitworth University
J.D., magna cum laude, Duke University School of Law
L.LM., (in International and Comparative Law), Duke University School of Law
M.P.P., Duke University

Courses

Secured Transactions
Artificial Intelligence & the Law
Blockchain Law & Policy

Books

THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE LAW (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024) (with Kristin N. Johnson)

BLOCKCHAIN LAW & POLICY: MATERIALS, CASES, AND PROBLEMS (West Academic, forthcoming 2024) (with Del Wright)

(Carolina Academic Press 2022) (with Carliss N. Chatman)

Articles

Law's Detrimental Reliance on Intermediaries, 92 George Washington Law Review (forthcoming 2025)

The Contractarian Joint Venture, Alabama Law Review (forthcoming 2024) (with Christine Hurt)

Foreword: Artificially Intelligent Innovation and Justice, 27 51做厙 Science & Technology Law Review 3 (2024)

Uncovering Elon's Data Empire, 53 Stetson Law Review 405 (2024) (with Carliss Chatman)
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Emerging Technology’s Language Wars: Cryptocurrency, 64 William and Mary Law Review 1193 (2023)
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Emerging Technology’s Language Wars: Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice, 5 Journal of Law & Innovation 1 (2023)
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Emerging Technology's Language Wars: Smart Contracts, 85 Wisconsin Law Review Forward 588 (2023)
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Creating Cryptolaw for the Uniform Commercial Code, 78 Washington & Lee Law Review 1521 (2021)
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Autonomous Corporate Personhood, 96 Washington Law Review 1453 (2021)
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Autonomous Business Reality, 21 Nevada Law Journal 437 (2021)
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A Unified Theory of Code-Connected Contracts, 46 Journal of Corporate Law 981 (2021)
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Digging Into Algorithms: Legal Ethics and Legal Access, 21 Nevada Law Journal 325 (2020) (with Jeff Ward)
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(Un)Corporate Crypto-Governance, 88 Fordham Law Review 1875 (2020)
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If Rockefeller Were a Coder, 87 George Washington Law Review 373 (2019)
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Conceptualizing Cryptolaw, 96 Nebraska Law Review 601 (2017)
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Distributed Governance, 59 William & Mary Law Review Online 1 (2017) (with Ben Edwards and Nizan Packin)
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Moving Beyond Bitcoin to an Endogenous Theory of Decentralized Technology Regulation: An Initial Proposal, 61 Villanova Law Review 191 (2016)
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WTO Compliant Protection of Fundamental Rights: Lessons from the EU Privacy Directive, 12 Melbourne Journal of International Law (2011) (peer reviewed)
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Book chapters

The Language Landmines of Blockchain Technology and Digital Assets, in THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON LAW AND POLICY FOR NFTS (forthcoming 2024) 

An Ethical Stack for AI Systems, in THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE LAW (forthcoming 2024)

Reimagining Investor Protection: Commentary on Rewritten SEC v. Howey, in (Cambridge University Press 2022) (with Kristin Johnson)

Other publications

Emerging Technology's Unfamiliarity with Commercial Law, 119 Northwestern University Law Review Online 31 (2023)

Emerging Technology’s Language Wars: Smart Contracts, 2022 Wisconsin Law Review Forward 85 (2023)

Exploring the implications of Artificial Intelligence, 8 Journal of International & Comparative Law (2021)

Cryptolaw for Distributed Ledger Technologies: A Jurisprudential Framework, 58 Jurimetrics Journal 283 (2018) (peer reviewed)

More Legal Aspects of Smart Contract Applications, Perkins Coie LLP Whitepaper (May 2018) (with J. Dax Hansen & Laurie Rosini)

Regulatory Framework for Token Sales: An Overview of Relevant Laws and Regulations in Different Jurisdictions. COALA Report, with the Blockchain Research Institute (January 2018) (with P. De Filippi et al.)

Blockchain-Based Agencies, 42 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 9 (Summer 2017)

Legal Aspects of Smart Contract Applications, Perkins Coie LLP Whitepaper (May 2017) (with J. Dax Hansen)

Distributed Ledger Technology Will Drive Legal Innovationin WHITE PAPER ON DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY 58 (Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Nov. 11, 2016)

Media

The Defiant, Interview, (podcast) (July 2024)

Barron's, Op-Ed,  (April 2023) (with Andrea Tostao)

Law of Code, Interview,  (podcast) (April 2023)

Forbes, quoted in  (February 2023)

Bloomberg News, quoted in  (December 2022)

Voice America, featured on  (podcast) (September 2022)

The Encrypted Economy, featured on  (podcast) (March 2022)

Legal Tech Live, featured on  (podcast) (February 2020)