Why a General Counsel Should Care About CLM

The GC’s mandate has expanded dramatically. The board now expects legal to govern AI, certify data privacy posture, manage third-party cyber risk, navigate sanctions, and operationalize every incoming regulation.

Each one of these risks lives, ultimately, in a contract. AI Act exposure, DORA readiness, sanctions compliance, ESG defensibility — these are not legal-theory questions. They are inventory questions. And inventory is where most legal departments are blind.

This point of view examines:

• Why the GC’s risk surface has outgrown the tools designed to manage it
• Where legal AI delivers real value — and where it structurally cannot
• The four gaps that separate a stateless copilot from enterprise-grade contract visibility
• What a contract system of record makes possible that no copilot can replicate
• Five questions to ask any CLM vendor before you commit