Can In-House Counsel Mitigate Emerging Technology’s ESG Impact?

Partner and chair of Herrick's Corporate Department, Morris DeFeo, was quoted in LegalTech News in an article discussing the role of in-house counsel in communicating and evaluating ESG risks in light of the prominence of emerging technologies like AI. 

The article notes that as generative AI spreads, the technology can impact an organization's ESG goals. "After all, gen AI has the potential for biased decision-making, takes up considerable energy resources, and can have significant data privacy impacts." Companies can look to their legal departments for critical advice on mitigating the risk of AI interfering with their ESG goals. 

Morris said, "If you are company management, and you don't have a real careful handle on the principal risk that the company is facing … they could be liability issues, compliance issues, operational issues," He said. "All of those things have legal consequences if you are not consulting your legal team in understanding what those risks are, especially when you're dealing with rapidly changing regulatory and other compliance things … you're probably not operating in a very prudent way."

Read the full article in LegalTech News here. Access may require a subscription.