The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium focused on legal operations’ evolving role at the recent 2026 CLOC Global Institute in Chicago.
The organization’s theme for the event was “Stronger by Design” and concentrated on legal operations as “the strategic architecture behind the modern legal department,” according to the CLOC. The topic of artificial intelligence also permeated most discussions, which tackled AI deployment, needed governance, and the profession’s future in this landscape.
“A year ago, the conversations at CGI were about what AI might do. This week, they were about what it has done, what broke, and how we govern it. That shift tells you everything about where this profession is,” said Oyango Snell, CLOC president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “Legal operations leaders aren’t waiting for permission anymore. They’re building, proving, and leading, and CGI 2026 showed that in full.”
The event also addressed contract lifecycle management, operational efficiency, data-driven decision making, and other emerging priorities for legal departments across over 90 educational sessions. Keynote speakers included OpenAI’s former head of go-to market Zack Kass, Wharton professor and economist Judd Kessler, and Second City Works’ Meagan O’Brien, Katie Klein, and Carisa Barreca.
Kass touched on business transformation’s future and urged attendees to be intentional in their AI approach. Kessler discussed organizational efficiency and decision-making improvement strategies. O’Brien, Klein, and Barreca spoke on innovation via improvisation.
CLOC also launched its interactive platform Compass at the CGI. The consortium collaborated with Neota Logic on the application, which is intended to aid legal professionals in assessing maturity and adopting actionable improvement steps based on CLOC’s Core 12 framework.
CLOC also partnered with Chicago nonprofit My Block, My Hood, My City on its CLOC Cares community service initiative. The initiative drew over 100 members; volunteers were tasked to prepare a community garden in the city’s far south side.
The CLOC CGI was attended by almost 2,400 legal operations professionals, industry leaders, technology innovators and legal service providers from over 26 countries. The event took place at McCormick Place West from May 11 to 14.
Next year’s CGI will be held in Las Vegas.