Webinar Preview: Context and Governance as Practical Foundations for Legal AI

# What this webinar covers

iManage is running a live webinar on October 8 at 10:00 AM ET / 3:00 PM UK to discuss how context and governance shape the future of AI in legal organisations. The session will be moderated by the founder of Artificial Lawyer and feature iManage's Paul Walker plus an additional legal-sector speaker to be announced.

# Why this topic matters

Legal teams are adopting AI quickly, but practical success depends less on which model you use and more on the quality of the foundation beneath it. The webinar frames two operational priorities: building meaningful context around information, and putting governance in place that applies to both people and AI tools.

# Core concepts the webinar will explain

• Challenge: Common gaps firms face when AI is applied to real legal work rather than narrow demos.

• Models: How embedding institutional knowledge and metadata into AI inputs improves relevance and accuracy and reduces unnecessary processing.

• Governance as a Competitive Advantage: Treating governance as an enabler for scalable, low-risk AI rather than a compliance cost.

• From Information Access to Intelligent Work: Linking content, permissions, and AI assistants so results are actionable and auditable.

• Preparing for an Agentic Future: Practical steps to handle assistants that act across systems and call APIs.

# What the webinar promises attendees

Attendees should leave with a practical framework for operationalising human-led, agent-supported knowledge work. The session highlights the idea of a "context fabric" as the technical and organisational layer that connects documents, permissions, metadata, and AI so outcomes are consistent and trustworthy.

# Practical implications for legal teams

• Accuracy and cost: Contextual inputs narrow search scope for AI, which can improve answer quality and lower token consumption.

• Risk management: Governance that extends to AI applications and agents reduces the chance of uncontrolled data access or accidental disclosures.

• Platform integration: Connected platforms and managed control points enable secure workflows that span Microsoft Copilot, legal AI apps, and external models.

• Strategic value: Institutional knowledge, if organised and governed, becomes an operational asset for automated assistants rather than a liability.

# Logistics

# Next steps if you plan to attend

Prepare questions about your firm's information architecture, current AI tooling, and data access controls. Bring examples of workflows you want to automate so the panel can address practical trade-offs between access, accuracy, and governance.