Event Preview: How the General Counsel of the Future Will Balance Digital Risk and Other Complex Issues

Technology and innovation make the world a smaller, more connected and more efficient place. But for the modern general counsel , the rapid advancement of technologies has also created a new spectrum of risks and demands for which many legal departments lack the internal resources or expertise to navigate. For example, in the 2023 General Counsel Report from FTI Technology and Relativity, 56% of legal department leaders listed data-related risk as their top concern, and more than half expressed concerns over the impact of unsanctioned uses of emerging data sources, such as cloud-based platforms and third-party communications channels that are hosted outside the perimeter of the enterprise.

In addition to the inherent challenges that come with the accelerated rate of new technology adoption, and the governance issues that accompany them, legislation relating to data, technology, geopolitics, surveillance and adjacent issues are changing quickly as well.  Jurisdictions around the world are taking varying and sometimes contradictory approaches to regulation and enforcement across data protection, privacy , environmental, social and governance, corporate social responsibility and, most recently, generative artificial intelligence.

During the upcoming Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Summit in London on 20 September, we’ll be discussing these issues and exploring how general counsel of global businesses can strike balance between innovation, transformation, regulatory fragmentation and data complexity. The session will cover:

• Top, complex issues and digital risks   impacting legal departments today. 
• How to align pressured budgets to the reality of the legal department’s resourcing needs, including benchmarking data from The 2023 General Counsel Report that shares how other legal departments are handling resource constraints. 
• The importance of delineating between genuine technology capability and hype, and helping business partners understand that technology alone is not a panacea. 
• Critical examination of the opportunities and limitations of technology to supercharge the capabilities of the legal function within global business. 

Visit here for more information, or to register to attend the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Summit. 
 

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.