Thursday 3 December, 2026

10:35 AM - 11:20 AM

Debate: Too Fast or Too Slow? The AI Adoption Dilemma for Legal Leaders

Motion: Are legal teams embedding AI too fast - or moving too slowly to keep up?

AI is firmly on the agenda for legal leaders, but there is little consensus on how quickly legal teams should move. This session brings together senior legal leaders to examine one of the profession’s most pressing questions: what is the right pace for AI adoption? Is moving quickly essential to remain a credible and effective business partner, or does speed risk embedding technology before the necessary guardrails, accountability and human oversight are in place? By exploring contrasting perspectives, the discussion will challenge assumptions and give attendees insight into how peers are navigating the AI adoption dilemma.

10:35 AM - 11:20 AM

What Would You Do? Ethics Speed-Rounds Workshop

This fast‑paced ethics workshop challenges participants to make real‑time decisions in a rapid‑fire format. Participants are presented with short ethical scenarios reflecting common situations faced by legal professionals, from conflicts and confidentiality to pressure from the business, clients or colleagues. For each scenario, participants have just three minutes to decide how they would respond. After each round, the group explores why different decisions were made and how context, role and organisational culture shape ethical judgment. Participants leave with sharper ethical awareness and greater confidence navigating difficult moments where the rulebook offers no clear answer.

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Who Does the Work Now? How GCs Are Rethinking In‑House Teams, External Counsel - and The Tools in Between

Legal leaders are rethinking how legal work is delivered as demand for legal support grows while internal capacity remains constrained. Moving beyond a simple in‑house versus external counsel model, many GCs now actively manage work across multiple channels, making deliberate decisions about what to retain internally, what to outsource and how best to deploy available resources. This panel brings together senior legal leaders to discuss how legal operating models are evolving, how work is allocated across teams and advisers, and how capability, cost, risk and partnership are balanced as business demands increase.

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Red Team vs Blue Team: Stress-Testing Legal Strategy - A Regulatory Workshop

Participants are split into two teams. The blue team develops and presents a legal and strategic response to a live regulatory scenario, covering decisions such as regulator engagement, escalation, communications and risk tolerance. The red team then challenges the approach, testing assumptions, exposing weaknesses and probing unintended consequences. Facilitated discussion explores how legal judgment, organisational dynamics and risk appetite shape outcomes and where strategies often fail in practice. Participants leave with sharper regulatory instincts, practical tools for pressure‑testing strategy, and clearer insight into effective collaboration between in‑house teams and external advisers.

1:50 PM - 2:35 PM

Inclusion After the Backlash: Leadership Choices Under Scrutiny

This panel explores how legal leaders are responding as the climate around inclusion becomes more difficult. Drawing on real‑world experience, speakers will discuss the leadership choices being made when priorities collide, how inclusion efforts are being sustained, reframed or challenged, and where legal leaders feel pressure to hold the line - or rethink their approach. The discussion focuses on the practical realities of leading teams, retaining talent and setting culture when the external environment is less forgiving, and when doing nothing can be as consequential as taking a stand.

1:50 PM - 2:35 PM

Walking in Their Shoes: A Client Experience Simulation Workshop

This interactive simulation invites in‑house counsel and private practice lawyers to swap roles and experience legal decision‑making from the other side of the client–adviser relationship. Participants step into unfamiliar roles, working through realistic scenarios that reflect common pressure points in legal instruction, advice delivery and expectation‑setting. By tackling the same situation from opposing perspectives, the session highlights where assumptions break down, communication falters and value is lost. Practical and collaborative, the workshop builds mutual understanding and surfaces clear ways in‑house teams and external advisers can work together more effectively.

3:35 PM - 4:20 PM

Voices from the Room: A Governance Reality Check - Live Decisions, No Rulebook

Governance frameworks are designed to bring clarity, consistency and protection - yet in practice, many of the most difficult decisions legal leaders face do not fit neatly within established processes. Using live polling and short scenario prompts, this session invites the room to sense‑check how decisions are really made inside organisations: when governance supports good outcomes, where it creates friction, and how legal leaders navigate accountability when formal structures fall short. Senior speakers will react to the room’s responses, sharing how they balance process, judgment and pragmatism.

3:35 PM - 4:20 PM

Prompt-a-Thon: AI Workshop

This hands‑on Prompt‑a‑Thon gives participants practical experience using AI through live prompting exercises. Working through short challenges, participants experiment with different prompt styles and see in real time how structure, context and clarity shape AI output. The session focuses on everyday legal and advisory use cases, encouraging testing, iteration and comparison. The emphasis is on building practical prompting instincts and learning how to generate more reliable, useful results from AI tools. Fast‑paced and collaborative, the workshop leaves participants more confident using AI as a practical support in their work.

4:20 PM - 5:05 PM

The Storm Is the Weather: Advising in an Age of Permanent Geopolitical Disruption

Geopolitical volatility is no longer a series of shocks but a constant feature of the environment in which legal advice is given. Trade measures, sanctions, regulatory shifts and political realignments evolve rapidly, often with limited warning and uneven enforcement. Legal leaders are increasingly expected to guide decision‑making without stable assumptions or clear outcomes. This panel explores how legal advice is changing when disruption is expected rather than exceptional. Drawing on real‑world experience, speakers discuss how legal leaders approach risk, judgment and credibility, frame advice amid shifting political dynamics, and support business decisions made in persistent uncertainty.

4:20 PM - 5:05 PM

The Business Transition Makeover Workshop

Set against a business in transition, this workshop brings in‑house lawyers and private practice advisers together to co‑design how legal teams should adapt under pressure. Working in groups, participants tackle a fast‑moving scenario where priorities are shifting and expectations of legal support are changing. Teams develop a practical legal team makeover plan, deciding how to rebalance resources, strengthen capability and deploy AI to improve speed, quality and confidence of advice. The session emphasises joint decision‑making, concluding with a facilitated discussion comparing approaches and revealing what effective client–adviser collaboration looks like during periods of transformation.