Juristack Exchange
Chicago 2026

A Full-Day Program for In-House Counsel and Law Firms

Fall 2026 · Downtown Chicago, IL

About This Event

Juristack Exchange Chicago is a full-day legal seminar designed for sophisticated in-house legal teams and the law firms that serve them. The program brings together leading practitioners, economists, technologists, and experts for practical, data-informed insight on the most pressing risks facing corporate legal departments. Registrants receive pre-event briefings, curated articles, and podcast episodes. After the seminar, attendees gain access to recorded sessions, slide decks, and post-event content.

Location

Foley & Lardner LLP
321 North Clark Street, Suite 3000
Chicago, Illinois 60654

Agenda

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Welcome Reception

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Join fellow attendees for an evening of networking, introductions, and informal discussion before the conference begins. Meet colleagues from across the legal ecosystem while exploring opportunities for collaboration, thought leadership, and business development. Attendees are encouraged to continue discussions through self-organized dinners and small-group gatherings throughout the city.

Thursday, November 5, 2026

Welcome Remarks: Why Juristack Exchange?

9:00 AM – 9:20 AM

Opening comments will frame Juristack Exchange around a simple reality: legal departments, law firms, and service providers are being asked to make faster decisions under greater scrutiny. The discussion will highlight why practical collaboration among legal, technology, regulatory, and business stakeholders is no longer optional, and why organizations that wait for perfect clarity may find themselves reacting to crises, investigations, litigation, or missed opportunities rather than shaping outcomes.

Artificial Intelligence: Opportunity, Governance, and Emerging Risk

9:20 AM – 10:15 AM

Organizations are already deploying AI into legal, compliance, and business workflows, often faster than governance programs can keep up. The risks are no longer theoretical: privilege questions, hallucinated work product, security exposure, regulatory scrutiny, unreliable outputs, and missed efficiency gains are all moving from discussion points to boardroom issues. This session explores practical use cases, governance models, lessons learned from early adoption efforts, and the emerging enforcement and litigation issues every legal leader should understand.

Cybersecurity and Incident Response

10:15 AM – 11:10 AM

Cyber incidents now create immediate legal, operational, financial, and reputational consequences. A delayed response, unclear escalation path, weak privilege strategy, or poorly managed investigation can compound the damage long after the technical event is contained. This discussion examines breach response, regulatory obligations, litigation preparedness, stakeholder communications, and the practical steps legal teams can take before a crisis exposes gaps in readiness.

Networking Break

11:10 AM – 11:25 AM

Data Governance and Information Management

11:25 AM – 12:20 PM

Poor information management has become a business risk, not just an administrative problem. Organizations that cannot locate, preserve, secure, defensibly delete, or understand their data face higher discovery costs, privacy exposure, security vulnerabilities, and operational drag. This session explores practical governance frameworks for managing information across complex environments while supporting compliance, litigation readiness, security, and business performance.

Networking Lunch and Featured Speaker

12:20 PM – 1:45 PM

A keynote conversation featuring a law department leader, general counsel, legal innovator, regulator, or business executive discussing the decisions legal organizations must make now to avoid being overtaken by technological change, regulatory pressure, rising costs, and shifting client expectations.

eDiscovery, Digital Evidence, and Internal Investigations

1:45 PM – 2:40 PM

Digital evidence now lives across collaboration platforms, cloud systems, mobile devices, ephemeral communications, enterprise applications, and AI-enabled tools. When organizations misunderstand those sources, they risk preservation failures, discovery sanctions, inefficient investigations, and missed facts that can change the outcome of a matter. This session examines evolving approaches to discovery, digital forensics, internal investigations, preservation obligations, cloud data, and emerging technologies.

Legal Operations and Department Performance

2:40 PM – 3:35 PM

Legal departments are under pressure to prove value, control costs, improve service delivery, and make smarter use of technology. Teams that lack clear metrics, process discipline, outside counsel management strategies, and vendor accountability frameworks increasingly struggle to justify budgets and maintain credibility with business leadership. This session focuses on practical legal ops strategies, performance measurement, and the tools and workflows that high-performing departments use to operate more efficiently.

Networking Break

3:35 PM – 3:50 PM

Emerging Issues Roundtable

3:50 PM – 4:20 PM

The most disruptive legal issues often appear first as weak signals: a new enforcement priority, a technical capability, a data practice, a regulatory inquiry, or a business model shift. This forward-looking discussion examines developments expected to influence legal departments during the coming years, including AI regulation, cybersecurity governance, evolving privacy requirements, investigation trends, and legal industry transformation. The goal is to help participants identify risks earlier and recognize opportunities before competitors, adversaries, or regulators force the issue.

Closing Remarks

4:20 PM – 4:30 PM

Conference summary and preview of future Juristack Exchange initiatives.

Cocktail Reception

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Join speakers, faculty, attendees, and sponsors for closing conversations and networking.

Sponsors & Partners

Juristack Exchange Chicago is made possible with the support of our sponsors. Contact us to learn about partnership opportunities.

Presenting Sponsors

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Supporting Sponsors

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Venue & Location

Foley & Lardner LLP
321 North Clark Street, Suite 3000
Chicago, Illinois 60654

Reserve Your Spot in Chicago

Space is limited to 150 attendees.

Register your interest today and be the first to receive program updates, faculty announcements, and registration details.

Questions? Contact the program team →