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

• Understand how risk management touches all parts of the general counsel (GC) role. (1:48)
• Learn actionable insights for improving the board’s effectiveness at risk oversight. (6:27)
• Bolster risk governance with coordination and collaboration of cross-functional teams. (11:27)
• Enable lawyers to help the business take the right risks to grow. (16:10)

GC play a pivotal role in helping their organizations navigate a complex and evolving risk landscape. In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, host Alissa Lugo unpacks the essential role of GC in helping their organizations effectively manage risk and drive organizational success in 2025. Discover how GC can boost board oversight, establish risk governance for risks such as AI and cybersecurity and align legal strategies for business growth.

Eager to hear more? The Strategic GC Podcast publishes the last Thursday of every month. Plus, listen back to past episodes: The Strategic GC Podcast (2024 Season).

Gartner analyst Alissa Lugo helps GC and other C-suite leaders solve their most urgent corporate governance problems. Alissa supports executives on a wide range of initiatives. These include improving board effectiveness, sharpening organizational risk management and oversight, advising on emerging corporate governance trends, managing director life cycle events and developing and improving environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies and programs. Prior to joining Gartner, Alissa was an equity partner for a national law firm in the corporate governance and securities group working on a variety of corporate transactions, securities compliance, securities offerings and corporate governance matters.

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

• Learn how regulatory intelligence presents strategic opportunities and potential competitive advantages. (3:14)
• Strategies for how legal leaders can clarify the business case for regulatory intelligence programs. (10:45)
• Understand how to prioritize efforts in developing regulatory intelligence programs. (18:06)
• Understand the various tools that are available in building regulatory intelligence programs. (22:46)
• Learn where to start building a regulatory intelligence program. (27:06)

The global surge in complex regulations has strained internal legal and compliance departments, necessitating robust processes to manage these changes effectively. In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner advisor Daniel Hebda and host Alissa Lugo discuss how general counsel (GC) can build regulatory intelligence programs to meet compliance obligations and identify strategic opportunities for potential competitive advantages.  

Eager to hear more?  The Strategic GC Podcast publishes the last Thursday of every month. Plus, 

listen back to past episodes

Daniel Hebda is a Senior Director Advisor in Gartner’s legal and compliance practice. Daniel helps legal and compliance leaders understand, tailor, and implement best practices in risk management. Daniel regularly speaks to clients on selecting a catalog of risks that represents their risk universe, surveying organizational stakeholders who can identify the likelihood and impact of top risks, developing and implementing actionable risk appetites, matching resources with risk priorities, and communicating effectively and clearly about risk strategy and mitigation plans. Before Gartner, Daniel practiced law and managed staff in the areas of civil litigation (plaintiff and defense), employment law, contracts, nonprofit law, and corporate governance.

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

• Why is it important for general counsel (GC) to work with and leverage the chief audit executive (CAE)? (1:42)
• Understand how CAEs can provide confidence to risk management through executive committees and particular risk areas.(4:53)
• Understand how CAEs can provide confidence on emerging risk information provided to the board and its committees. (7:33)
• Strategies for how GC can leverage CAEs for integrated risk assessments. (10:38)
• Understand how integrated risk assurance can help the board with increasing overall risk appetite and the role of the CAE. (15:21)
• How can coordinating activities across assurance improve risk management (19:07)
• Ideas for conversation topics for GC and CAEs. (22:05)

With more than half of boards ineffectively overseeing risk, GC should focus on identifying ways to help the board improve. In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner analyst Tim Berichon and host Alissa Lugo discuss how GC can partner with the CAE to build confidence around risk management activities, which then aids the board in having better insights on how executive leaders are managing risks.

Eager to hear more?  The Strategic GC Podcast publishes the last Thursday of every month. Plus, listen back to past episodes.

Take Gartner with you. Gartner clients can listen to the full episode and read more provocative insights and expertise on the go with Gartner Mobile App.   

Become a Gartner client to access exclusive content from global thought leaders. Visit www.gartner.com today!

About the Guest:

Tim Berichon is a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s audit practice.  Tim helps Chief Audit Executives on leadership and effectiveness matters.  Tim regularly speaks to clients on optimizing business relevance, how best to manage board and senior leadership relationships, enterprise risk management and assurance challenges, and articulating audit services.  Prior to joining Gartner, Tim was Director of CAE Engagement and Research at The Institute of Internal Auditors ( IIA).  Prior to the IIA, he held CFO, CAE, ERM, and Forensic Investigation leadership positions at three global publicly listed companies. Tim started his career at PwC.

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

• Why is there a heightened focus on risk management now? (2:09)
• What are some tactics general counsel (GC) can use to ensure that emerging risk information presented to the board helps them with their oversight role? (4:40)
• Understand the types of information to include in board reports on emerging risks. (6:54)
• Understand the differences in how enterprise risks and emerging risks are treated and presented to the board. (10:18)
• Key takeaways on how to leverage heads of ERM to enable better risk oversight by the board. (18:38)

Risk management continues to be one of the top concerns of boards. To alleviate this concern, boards must be receiving the right information from the C-suite, a crucial aspect of its ability to fulfill its risk oversight duty. In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Garnter advisors Matt Holyes and Kevin Mercado and host Alissa Lugo discuss how general counsel can work better with heads of ERM.

About the Guests:

Kevin Mercado is a Principal Advisor in Gartner’s enterprise risk management practice. Kevin helps heads of enterprise risk management address their most-pressing, forward-looking challenges. Kevin provides timely insights on a range of topics including identifying and managing constantly evolving emerging risks, enhancing the risk response process, and developing risk assessment strategies.

Matt Hoyles is a Senior Principal Advisor for Gartner working with CRO's and ERM leaders on the development of their risk management teams and processes, including how to use risk management for strategic advantage and to drive corporate performance. Matt regularly speaks on launching and maturing the risk function, effective risk governance, and how others are defining, measuring and enhancing risk culture. Matt also leads our Quarterly Emerging risk webinar and regularly speaks to various audiences on recent emerging risk trends and building an effective emerging risk program.

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• Why now is the time to invest in legal tech and solve adoption challenges. (1:55)
• Understand why lawyers avoid technology. (4:56)
• Determine how to make tech hard to avoid for intended users. (9:50)
• Understand how to turn continued tech holdouts into tech adopters. (17:05)
• Immediate actions to improve your legal tech adoption strategies. (23:43)

While most lawyers do understand the potential usefulness and value of using technology to improve their work, general counsel will have to work to overcome reluctance and set clear and real expectations for tech usage. In this installment of the Strategic GC Podcast, Gartner advisor Drew Tanenbaum and host Alissa Lugo discuss how general counsel can increase legal technology adoption rates.

Eager to hear more? The Strategic GC Podcast publishes the last Thursday of every month. Plus, listen back to past episodes.

Drew Tanenbaum, a Gartner senior director of advisory, helps general counsel (GC) become more effective organizational and functional leaders. As a trusted advisor to GC, Drew supports them on a range of initiatives, including personal and team strategy setting, improving board effectiveness, developing and managing environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) strategies, transforming legal departments, and improving organizational risk management. Previously, Drew worked as in-house counsel at PayPal and Citigroup, and before that he served as an attorney at two large, national law firms.

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.