Authors of record.
Licensed real estate attorneys are the authors of the smart contracts that underpin transactions within the Alliance network. Each contract bears the name of an attorney who has adopted its terms and who bears professional responsibility for them.
The authorship model.
The Alliance's smart contract system does not operate on anonymous, machine-written templates. Every base contract available for selection within the network is authored and adopted by a licensed attorney. The attorney is the author of record: their name, bar number, and jurisdiction of licensure are associated with the contract, and their professional responsibility attaches to its terms.
This is not a matter of aesthetic preference. It is a matter of law. A contract that governs the transfer of real property, the allocation of risk, the structure of escrow, and the disposition of earnest money is a legal instrument, and legal instruments must have responsible authors. An AI system may assist in drafting; a licensed attorney must adopt. The Alliance's architecture makes this distinction permanent.
The practical consequence is that attorneys who register with the Alliance and elect to participate in the contract system contribute the bedrock intellectual property on which the network's transactions are built. Every transaction that proceeds on a given base contract produces a base fee for its authoring attorney — paid by the transaction, disclosed to the consumer, passed through by the Alliance.
The economics for the participating attorney.
An attorney participating in the Alliance's contract system contributes base contracts for their jurisdictions of licensure. Each base contract, once accepted into the system, becomes available for consumer selection in those jurisdictions. Every transaction that adopts the contract yields a base fee for the authoring attorney.
Consumers select their contract at the time of transaction, from the roster of attorneys whose contracts serve the applicable jurisdiction. Selection is informed by the attorney's reputation within the Reputation Ledger, the attorney's stated base fee, and such other information as the Alliance requires to be disclosed. Multiple attorneys compete for selection on the basis of their contract's reputation, their expertise, and their fee — as in any market for professional services.
The base fee covers the standard contract as adopted. Customizations, supplementary services, or legal consultation beyond the scope of the base contract are billable by the attorney separately, at terms negotiated directly with the client. The base-contract economics establish a floor; direct engagement between attorney and client establishes the rest.
The Alliance does not take a share of base fees or of any other attorney-client compensation. The Alliance's compensation from participating attorneys is their annual membership dues — the same $495 that every other member pays — and nothing more.
Jurisdictional scope.
Attorneys are licensed by state. A contract authored within the Alliance is associated with one or more jurisdictions — those in which its author is licensed and in which they have elected to make the contract available. An attorney licensed in multiple states may offer base contracts in each.
When a consumer transacts within a given territory, the roster of available base contracts is filtered to those authored by attorneys licensed in that jurisdiction. Where multiple attorneys compete in the same jurisdiction, the consumer selects; where only one attorney's contract is available, the consumer may elect to proceed or to await additional offerings.
The Alliance does not itself select on the consumer's behalf, does not rank attorneys other than by the publicly visible Reputation Ledger, and does not engage in any manner of preferred referral.
A tool for drafting. Not a substitute for counsel.
The Alliance hosts an interface through which registered attorneys author, maintain, and amend the base contracts they wish to make available within the network. The interface provides AI-assisted drafting, jurisdictional templates, standardized clause libraries, and versioning controls — tools that accelerate the attorney's work without displacing the attorney's judgment.
What the interface does not do is substitute machine judgment for legal judgment. Every draft produced through the interface requires attorney review and explicit adoption before it becomes available as a base contract. No contract enters the network without a named attorney's formal act of adoption, and every adopted contract remains the adopting attorney's professional responsibility thereafter.
The tools are provided to reduce the operational burden of participation, not to reduce the legal rigor of participation. An attorney who uses the interface efficiently may contribute several base contracts across jurisdictions with modest time investment. An attorney who uses it carelessly — adopting drafts without review — is subject to the same professional consequences that would attend any other failure of legal diligence.
The Alliance's use of AI tools for drafting assistance is an extension of practice rather than a departure from it. Attorneys have long used templates, clause banks, and software-assisted drafting. The Alliance provides such tools in more capable form. The legal architecture is unchanged: the attorney reads, the attorney adopts, the attorney is responsible. AI draws faster; it does not sign.
The same $495. Distinct participation.
Attorneys join the Alliance under the same terms as other members. Annual dues are $495, the same figure that applies to every professional category. Admission requires verification of identity, confirmation of active bar admission in at least one jurisdiction, and review of standing with the bar's regulatory authority.
Participation in the contract authorship system is a voluntary election, made at registration or thereafter. An attorney may be an Alliance member without authoring base contracts; an attorney who elects to author contracts does so on the terms described above. The contract system's economics are separate from the dues relationship, and do not alter it.
The Alliance maintains a separate, searchable roster of attorneys whose contracts are available within the network. Consumers and participating professionals may view the roster at time of transaction. Attorneys whose contracts see frequent adoption build standing within the Reputation Ledger; attorneys whose contracts see infrequent adoption do not. Market dynamics govern this, not Alliance judgment.
Inquiries from practicing attorneys are welcome.
Attorneys considering participation in the Alliance's contract authorship system are invited to address the Office of the Chairman directly for an introductory conversation.
info@aorep.org