In-House Counsel

Navigating The Legal Complexities Of Nascent Technologies

Let’s look at the critical role lawyers play in advising clients on the legal and regulatory issues they will face.

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maze-g9714478f9_1920You can hardly turn around without seeing a bold headline hyping the value of AI. Generative AI is the latest buzzword, but it is only one among many disruptive technologies emerging to provide value and contribute to our modern technological landscape. 

These nascent technologies present complex legal challenges that require careful navigation. Lawyers today must equip themselves to advise business clients on their coming implications. 

How will you advise clients on their use of emerging technologies? Let’s look at the critical role lawyers play in advising clients on the legal and regulatory issues they will face and explore some of the legal challenges nascent technologies pose.

The Lawyer’s Role In Advising Clients On Nascent Technologies

Every new technology comes with unique legal risks and opportunities, and lawyers are crucial for identifying potential legal issues. That’s because you have the knowledge and expertise to connect legal principles to business and technological concerns. 

You know how to examine the legal issues created by previous technological advancements and assess how the law may respond to new developments. Your experience can help you evaluate how legal principles may evolve. And you can carefully craft language that allows clients to see how laws and regulations that apply to new technologies affect business decisions and outcomes.

Unless you have an impressive technological background, you will likely need to learn about some of the intricacies of each new technology to determine how its algorithms, actions, and results fit within today’s legal frameworks, to help clients make informed decisions that support and encourage innovation while limiting potential liabilities; and to create effective policies and processes that address evolving legal challenges. 

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Potential Legal Challenges In Nascent Technologies

Some common areas of concern with new technologies include:

Intellectual property rights. New inventions and innovations may lead to questions around patent eligibility and ownership disputes. Corporate clients will need assistance navigating complex IP laws and applying legal precedents to protect company assets and resolve disputes efficiently.

Data privacy and security. Extensive data collection and analysis present privacy and security concerns. Competent legal advice will require up-to-date knowledge of applicable data protection laws and regulations to develop robust privacy policies that safeguard data.

Compliance with evolving regulations. A typical organization uses 130 SaaS apps, making manually tracking and reporting on usage and data generation impossible. Software solutions can help you and your clients stay current with new laws and regulations. 

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Focus On Client Needs

Various industries adopt new technologies at varying rates and apply them for various purposes, e.g., the health care industry uses AI differently than the marine wildlife conservation sector. 

Focus on learning how leaders in your practice area and your client’s industry use the latest technology tools. You can never go wrong honing in on client needs. Far from it! You’re in an ideal position to devise tailored strategies that help minimize operational disruption while empowering clients who want to use the latest technologies to grow their businesses.

Olga MackOlga V. Mack is the VP at LexisNexis and CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat, Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security, and  Blockchain Value: Transforming Business Models, Society, and Communities. She is working on Visual IQ for Lawyers, her next book (ABA 2023). You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.

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