{"id":118792,"date":"2025-05-12T18:02:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T02:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/12\/from-anticipation-to-reality-cloc-global-institute-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T18:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T02:02:34","slug":"from-anticipation-to-reality-cloc-global-institute-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/12\/from-anticipation-to-reality-cloc-global-institute-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"From Anticipation To Reality: CLOC Global Institute 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I previewed<\/a> the 2025 CLOC Global Institut<\/a>e last week, I focused on the doors this conference promised to open: doors to AI integration, smarter vendor selection, operational maturity, and a redefinition of legal department value. Now, having spent four days immersed in sessions, keynotes, vendor conversations, and community exchanges (not to mention one hell of a party featuring Flo Rida and Flavor Flav), it seems CLOC is trying to embrace the changes AI is bringing and rethinking its role both in the legal department but also in the business itself.<\/p>\n

From Fear and Loathing v. Today\u2019s Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my pre-conference article, I wondered whether AI would make traditional CLM platforms obsolete. Would legal departments shift from reactive support of legal ops to seeing legal ops as a driver of change? I wondered if legal ops was struggling to find its place in a post-AI world. That the C-suite would see AI as being able to do a lot of what legal ops professionals are doing.<\/p>\n

Yes, there was a sense among some attendees that AI could diminish their role. But I also saw in Las Vegas a profession that seemed to be squarely facing the future. There was lots of talk about the need for human skills in the legal ops matrix. Lots of talk about how AI could be used by legal ops to do what they do better. AI and the changes it may bring weren\u2019t being thought of by most CLOC members as a future problem but a present reality. The people I talked to were asking how they could best use AI today to improve legal ops value.<\/p>\n

I also got the sense that legal ops teams are looking for opportunities for an enhanced role in the legal department and in the business as a whole.<\/p>\n

The General Session<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the penultimate day of the conference, a general session entitled Powerhouse Perspectives<\/em> \u2014 with a powerhouse panel of Eric Greenberg<\/a>, General Counsel of the Cox Media Group, Casey Flaherty<\/a>, Chief Strategy at LexFusion, and Aine Lyons<\/a>, Deputy General Counsel of Workday \u2014 encapsulated a lot of what I heard throughout out the conference.<\/p>\n

AI Adoption Requires Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n

The session reinforced a core theme: AI adoption is as much a leadership challenge as a technical one.<\/p>\n

Legal departments are facing mounting pressure \u2014 from CEOs, boards, and peers \u2014 to operationalize GenAI. McKinsey reports and CLOC\u2019s own surveys show AI as a top C-suite priority, with 96% of GCs expecting increased budgets to support it.<\/p>\n

But while the business is pushing for transformation, the session panel highlighted that the biggest barriers aren\u2019t technical \u2014 they\u2019re human:<\/p>\n