Crypto Assets and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations

The Corporate Law and Financial Regulation Research Program, in association with the Australian Law Reform Commission held a webinar on the regulation of crypto assets and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations. The webinar provided an update on regulatory developments in Australia and overseas, and explored the direction of future reforms.

View the webinar recording

About the panel

Professor Rosemary Langford is Director of the Corporate Law and Financial Regulation Program of the MCCL. Rosemary teaches a range of subjects including Corporations Law and Corporate Governance and Directors’ Duties. She is currently leading an Australian Research Council project on Restoring Public Trust in Charities – Reforming Governance and Enforcement. Publications include Directors’ Duties: Principles and Application (Federation Press, 2014), Company Directors’ Duties and Conflicts of Interest (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Technology and Corporate Law: How Innovation Shapes Corporate Activity (edited with P Lee and A Godwin, Edward Elgar, 2021). Rosemary is editor of the Directors’ Duties section of the Company and Securities Law Journal, member of the Law Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and member of the Corporations Committee and Not For Profit Law Committee of the Law Institute of Australia.

Dr Andrew Godwin is Team Leader and Special Counsel at the Australian Law Reform Commission, assisting its inquiry into the simplification of corporations and financial services regulation. He previously spent 15 years as an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School (2006 – 2021) and 15 years in practice (1992 – 2006). Andrew’s research interests include financial services law, finance and insolvency law, financial regulation, property law and the regulation of the legal profession. Recent books that he has published as an author or editor include The Cambridge Handbook of Twin Peaks Financial Regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Technology and Corporate Law: How Innovation Shapes Corporate Activity (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021) and Sackville & Neave Australian Property Law (11th edition, LexisNexis, 2021). Andrew has acted as a consultant to a broad range of organisations, including the World Bank and regulators and governments in Australia and abroad.

Laurence White is a Melbourne-based barrister and consultant specialising in financial regulation and digital assets topics, both in legal practice where he has advised and represented crypto-assets issuers, exchanges, clients and crypto-miners, and as a consultant to the Institute of International Finance based in Washington, D.C, for whom he has prepared submissions and reports on crypto-assets, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies among other topics. He speaks in his personal capacity and not on behalf of any client. Before coming to the bar, Laurence had a long career as a financial regulator in Australia and overseas, and worked for the Financial Stability Board secretariat in Basel until 2019, and prior to that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Treasury, the European Commission in Brussels, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority, as well as at Corrs Chambers Westgarth as a solicitor. He is the co-author of the monograph A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents (U. Mich. Press, 2011) and a number of journal articles on AI and the law and on financial regulation topics.

Joni Pirovich is a passionate advocate for web3 innovation and DAO-first thinking, founding LawFi DAO in July 2022 to further her contribution to web3. Joni’s legal practice, strategic and policy consulting, and policy submissions through BADAS*L span across issues in tax, financial services, IP, labour, litigation, wills and estates to support all types of web3 involvement by individuals, start-ups, funds, DAOs, exchanges, NFT marketplaces, banks and ‘crypto-banks’. Joni was a contributor to the recently released World Economic Forum DAO Policy Toolkit and sits on the DAO Panel for the UK Law Commission.

Emeritus Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes OAM was the founding Director of The Australian Centre of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) at the Queensland University of Technology. He has written extensively about nonprofit tax and regulation, nonprofit legal entities, and government grants. He was a founding member of the ATO Charities Consultative Committee and the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission Advisory Board. In June 2003, Myles was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “For service to the community by providing education and support in legal, financial and administrative matters to nonprofit organisations.

Selected Speakers Presentations


Disclaimer

Nothing in the above recording or associated documents constitutes legal, tax, financial or accounting advice. The content is general and not specific to your or your clients’ circumstances and is a point in time reflection in an environment of transitionary and rapidly evolving technology and regulatory change. You are responsible for seeking independent, professional and timely advice specific to you or your clients’ circumstances.