14. The new operating question: who owns geopolitical legal risk?

Taken together, the sanctions, export-control, trade, AI-chip and investment-screening signals show why geopolitical risk cannot sit solely with one specialist group. The most useful Inside Practice messaging should ask how general counsel, chief risk officers, law-firm leadership, sanctions teams, trade teams, privacy/AI counsel, conflicts teams and deal lawyers should coordinate when economic statecraft reaches into ordinary commercial work.

Messaging implications for Inside Practice

• Position Geopolitics for the Legal Profession around “geopolitical risk as operating infrastructure,” not only sanctions updates.
• Use AI export controls and chip governance to connect the feed to Legal AI New York and Legal AI London.
• Use OFSI, CFIUS and EU sanctions developments to build practical session angles on triage, evidence, escalation, governance and board reporting.
• Treat law-firm political pressure as a leadership and independence topic for managing partners and general counsel.
• Build mini-directory outreach around regulators, sanctions lawyers, export-control specialists, national-security deal counsel, geopolitical risk advisors and technology governance leaders.

Mini-directory entity candidates