The past year set up a clear clash between federal deregulatory efforts and state-level AI rulemaking, and 2026 is poised to be the year that conflict materializes in earnest. The Trump Administration signaled a strong preference for scaling back AI-specific rules while exploring avenues to preempt state and local measures, even as a growing number
The SEC encouraged a discussion of advisers’ proxy arrangements in response to President Trump’s recent proxy voting executive order. In a December 11, 2025, Executive Order, President Trump directed the SEC to consider a number of actions to materially reshape the proxy advisory landscape, including a direction to address the influence that proxy advisors
There is currently no comprehensive federal statute specifically governing AI; however, regulatory agencies and state legislatures have issued guidance, enforcement actions, and laws that collectively form a developing patchwork of AI-related regulations. Founders face conflicting obligations from state legislatures, federal agencies, and political shifts that swing with each administration.
The Biden administration issued a non-binding
The Ambition Effect
The prevailing narrative surrounding Generative AI in the legal sector is one of unprecedented efficiency. The sales pitch is seductive in its simplicity: automate routine drafting and research, compress hours into minutes, and liberate attorneys for higher-value strategic thinking.
Yet, as the initial wave of adoption settles, a distinct counter-narrative is emerging
Research into how AI can help lawyers
One of the more exciting aspects of witnessing a breakthrough technology like AI emerge seemingly overnight is to observe how it manifests in our daily life. In addition to us finding new ways to apply AI every day, the technology itself is also fast evolving.
To keep up
Here’s my post for Above the law on the troubling disconnect in legal tech identified by Hwang Jae Hyuk: 70% of investment flows to vendors targeting the 40% of time lawyers spend on research and analysis, while only 30% goes toward solving the administrative burdens that actually eat up most of our days.
It’s
Intellectual property rights are legal claims to non-physical assets. These rights give businesses the power to protect, license, and commercialize the products of human effort, whether that effort produces code, content, designs, formulas, or data sets.
IP rights are enforced under different legal systems: patents and copyrights are primarily federal, trademarks can be protected under
The ICO has, this week, published extensive guidance on its expectations on Agentic AI, ICO tech futures: Agentic AI | ICO. The UK data protection regulator’s core message is clear: the future of the success of this technology is rooted in accountability.
Investor expectations on the realisation of commercial benefits from AI deployment are
SCWorld.com reported that “The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in collaboration with the MITRE Corporation announced late last month that it’s investing $20 million to establish two AI Economic Security Centers.” The January 13, 2026 article entitled “What AI forces us to confront in OT and critical infrastructure” (https://tinyurl.com/bp99apwa) included
The NewYorkTimes.com reported that “After a nearly yearlong delay to its efforts to compete in artificial intelligence, Apple said on Monday that it planned to base its A.I. products on technology developed by Google.” The January 12, 2026 article entitled “Apple Teams Up With Google for A.I. in Its Products” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/technology/apple-google-ai-partnership.html) included these