Keynote Case Study: Baker McKenzie: Risk Accelerated When The Future Accelerated.

Jim Carroll’s keynote spoke to corporate legal counsel from major global organizations at Baker McKenzie client conferences in Dallas and Chicago about the new legal complexity created by fast technology, connected products, changing careers and accelerated product innovation.

The keynote, “Risk Accelerated When The Future Accelerated,” laid out the challenge and the path forward.

Legal teams were being asked to manage risks created by technologies and business models that were evolving faster than traditional policy and precedent.

Six trends are shaping that shift.

• Intellectual Property. Faster invention, software and new digital products were creating more complex questions around ownership and protection.
• Internet Of Things. Connected products were expanding the surface area for responsibility, security, data and operational risk.
• New Careers. New roles and skills were emerging quickly, changing workforce structures and the issues legal teams had to anticipate.
• Product Innovation Speed. Shorter development cycles were compressing the time available to identify, assess and manage emerging risks.
• Business Model Disruption. New platforms and competitors could rewrite relationships, contracts, liabilities and industry boundaries.
• Rising Complexity. The collision of technology, regulation, global operations and speed was making legal foresight a strategic capability.

The law may move deliberately, Jim told Baker McKenzie’s client audiences. The technologies, products and business models creating new risk do not.

When innovation speeds up, Jim’s message went, legal risk does too. The strategic challenge is to anticipate new issues before they become established problems. Explore more keynote case studies.