Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

• Top use cases for in-house legal teams (3:37)
• Steps GC can take to get their in-house teams to test it out (8:08)
• Tips on managing the risks of generative AI “hallucinations” (13:20)
• How to get started (15:52)
• How law firms can help (17:14)
• Medium-term goals legal leaders should set for employing the technology (17:55)

Over the next two to five years, Gartner predicts large language models (LLMs) will boost legal department productivity by at least 10% to 20%, more than other transformative technologies. General counsel (GC) should get their teams to start using LLMs now.

In this installment of the Strategic GC podcast, Gartner Vice President and Chief of Research for General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officers Chris Audet and host Laura Cohn discuss the GC’s role in helping legal teams find ways to integrate generative AI and AI-enabled research tools into their work. Listen now to get insights on how the technology can help teams manage contract work and why GC should encourage experimentation. Plus, get the inside track on the importance of training, how law firms can help, and why the technology presents an opportunity that legal leaders shouldn’t wait to capitalize on.

Eager to hear more? The Strategic GC podcast publishes the last Thursday of every month. Plus, catch up with our previous episode, on how to make a legal operations function a strategic partner. Subscribe to Strategic GC Podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Simplecast.

Chris Audet is vice president and chief of research for Gartner’s assurance practice. For more than 15 years, he has worked closely with leading general counsel and chief compliance officers. He currently identifies, designs and executes research to meet the expanding portfolio of in-house legal and compliance teams, covering topics that include compliance program management, legal and compliance technology, and compliance risk management. Before Gartner, he worked for the Association of Corporate Counsel. Chris is retired from the practice of law in the State of New York.

Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

• Legal operations’ most common role. (6:21)
• Legal operations can assist with taking a portfolio approach to law firm services. (13:06)
• The other roles that legal operations can take on in legal department management. (15:49)
• Tips on how to better leverage legal operations as a strategic partner. (28:35)

In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner advisor Roxanne Rogers and host Alissa Lugo discuss how legal operations can be a strategic partner to the general counsel (GC). To better utilize legal operations, GC should:

• Understand the role legal operations have traditionally played.
• Utilize legal operations for workload and external provider management.
• Include legal operations when setting legal department strategy.

Roxanne Rogers is a Gartner advisory director and helps general counsel (GC) improve their department management and operations. Roxanne serves as a trusted advisor to legal leaders focused on strategic planning, workload allocation, process refinement and legal staff development. She has been working with GC for eight years. Roxanne also helps GC develop multiyear strategic roadmaps, conduct legal staff workload assessments, identify outside counsel cost-saving opportunities and develop competency models.

Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

• How to update risk monitoring systems. (6:03)
• Why is the FCPA and compliance monitoring and analytics under scrutiny? (10:40)
• How can AI and other technologies help with risk monitoring and detection. (12:31)
• Tips on implementing the DOJ’s guidance on incentive compensation structures. (14:46)
• Tips on implementing the DOJ’s and the FTC’s guidance on messaging apps and collaboration tools guidance. (20:19)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has upped the ante on compliance program effectiveness with a wave of guidance issued since 2022. Legal and compliance leaders would benefit from assessing and improving three key priorities outlined by the DOJ:

• Update risk monitoring systems
• Incorporate incentives into compensation structures to foster compliance culture and establish clawback policies
• Establish policies and procedures to preserve communications and data from messaging and collaboration tools and personal devices that are used for business purposes

In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner analyst Lauren Kornutick and host Alissa Lugo discuss how leaders can improve compliance program effectiveness based on DOJ guidance. It includes three areas to prioritize, how to assess compliance program effectiveness, as well as case studies from QBE, AbbVie and Intel on progressive risk assessment and monitoring practices.

Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

• What does it mean to be an effective GC (2:56)
• How can GC navigate and prioritize various role expectations (4:30)
• Tips for how GC can form and strength relationships with key stakeholders (7:27)
• How should GC handle tricky relationships (11:49)
• Tips on how the GC assess the capabilities of the legal department (13:57)
• Quick wins the GC can take during the initial transition period (17:20)

Transitioning into a new general counsel (GC) role is critical and challenging. To be successful, a new GC should focus on three areas.

• Understand the expectations of the GC role at their organization
• Form key relationships with the board, executive team, business partners and legal department staff
• Assess the legal department’s maturity, capabilities and processes

In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner research leader Abbott Martin and host Alissa Lugo discuss how new GC can focus on key steps to start their transitions off strong. It includes three areas to focus on, some insights gained from clients navigating these transitions, as well as some quick wins GC can take to signal willingness to be a strategic partner.

Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

• The GC’s first steps for managing AI governance. (2:01)
• Emerging governance structures include moving away from outright bans. (4:13)
• Critical lessons from a case study on IBM’s governance framework. (5:13)
• How a smaller enterprise could adapt IBM’s framework. (7:28)
• What the GC needs to weigh when deciding on a governance model. (9:28)
• How to know who should own AI risk. (10:35)
• Tips on navigating the shifting global regulatory landscape. (11:40)
• The EU’s AI Act: GDPR all over again? (13:00)
• Why managing AI oversight is an opportunity for GC. (14:54)
• Three actions for GC to manage AI governance. (15:47)

When ChatGPT took the world by storm, most general counsel hadn’t even considered the risks. Very few had guidelines. Some companies even outright banned the use of generative AI tools. But now, more than a year later, most companies have a policy — or are working on one. Others are building out their AI oversight teams.

In this installment of the Strategic GC, Gartner analyst Lauren Kornutick and host Laura Cohn discuss the general counsel’s role in helping organizations shape and maintain AI governance to enable them to harness the opportunities and manage the risks. It includes how to get started, takeaways from IBM’s AI governance framework, and tips on managing the global regulatory shifts. They also discuss AI oversight as an opportunity for legal leaders to showcase their strengths as a strategic business leader.

Only have time to listen in bite-sized chunks? Skip straight to the parts of the podcast most relevant to you:

Why companies should be aware of the new SEC rules (1:43)

What’s at stake: CISO personal liability, as seen in the SolarWinds complaint (4:18)

Lessons for other organizations from the SEC’s complaint (5:25)

How the GC can coach the CISO on getting the board up to speed on cyber risk (6:28)

How often cybersecurity risk should appear on the board’s agenda (7:28)

Details on what information the CISO should share with directors (9:05)

Tips on how the GC can coach the CISO on board presentations (10:49)

What else the GC should do now to manage the SEC’s rules (13:07)

Pitfalls to avoid (14:26)

Only one in four legal leaders is confident in their ability to tackle strategic planning and resource allocation.1

A good strategic plan for the legal department elevates the GC from captain of a firefighting squad to savvy business partner, but how do you create one? In this installment of the Strategic GC, Gartner legal and compliance advisor Sarah Barrett-Vane and host Eliza Krigman discuss two essential elements: defining legal goals that align with organizational objectives and adjusting to changes in the business environment. 

Listen to learn what effective GC do to adapt well, such as capability planning, and find out what kind of events warrant a shift in tack.

New episodes publish on the last Thursday of the month. 

1 2022 Gartner General Counsel Personal Effectiveness Diagnostic: Gartner surveyed 93 GC against 185 attributes to determine the markers of a personally effective GC and the behaviors, activities and methodologies they implement that makes them personally effective. Data was collected from 1 January through 31 December 2022, and represents respondents in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. All industry segments qualified for this survey, and organization revenue ranged from less than $250 million to $50 billion and greater for the 2022 fiscal year.

Sarah Barrett-Vane is a U.K.-based legal operations and procurement leader. At Gartner, she focuses on advising general counsel and heads of legal operations.

Sarah worked as a lawyer for 13 years before moving into legal procurement and contract management. She served for five years as director of legal operations at Royal Mail, where she focused on buying legal services, managing external providers, and implementing legal technology and process improvements. 

She started her own legal operations/procurement consulting business in 2018, advising corporate legal teams on topics including legal panel reviews, legal technology solutions and improving department performance.

• Why GenAI holds promise for in-house legal departments (1:52)
• Use cases for in-house legal (3:02)
• How to manage the reliability issues (4:45)
• Why implementing the technology is a priority now (5:59)
• Why organizations that use the technology will replace those that don’t (7:11)
• How Tim Fraser is encouraging members of his team to test the technology (7:53)
• Initial takeaways (9:09)
• How Tim plans to use AI in contracting (11:05)
• What guardrails organizations should implement to manage the risk (11:42)
• Tim’s role in setting up the company’s cross-functional innovation program to manage risk and build “a culture of experimentation and adoption” (13:18)
• Why GenAI will “probably be as disruptive as the industrial revolution” (15:36)

Tim Fraser, the general counsel for Toshiba America, hasn’t wasted any time in identifying ways GenAI can help legal teams free time to do more strategic work and, at the same time, save money. Listen to Tim and host Laura Cohn discuss how the technology can drive efficiency — and why organizations can’t afford to have a wait-and-see attitude toward using it. Tim, whose team meets regularly to share information about how they’re using GenAI, is trying to build “a culture of experimentation and adoption.” He offers this advice to other executives: “Get started,” because this will be “at least as disruptive as the invention of the computer.”