Extract from Trudy Knockless’ article “What Looms for Legal Ops? More Responsibility—and More Complexity”
As legal departments take on more responsibility for AI policy, privacy and compliance, the legal tech platform Brightflag says 2026 will be the year in-house teams step out of the back office and into a central role in corporate strategy.
Kevin Cohn, chief customer officer at Brightflag, has released his 2026 legal tech predictions—the fifth year he’s issued an annual outlook—and this year’s forecast is bullish on in-house growth, legal-ops hiring and the continued convergence of legal technology tools.
Many of his 2025 predictions—such as the rise of AI assistants, stronger alignment between general counsel and legal ops, and a growing focus on customer service—are already proving prescient. But according to Cohn, the road ahead suggests corporate legal teams will face even greater influence and complexity.
“Legal will own AI policy, compliance, information security, and privacy,” he wrote in Brightflag’s 2026 outlook, arguing that in-house attorneys are “advantaged … because they have greater context and situational awareness” than outside counsel when it comes to operationalizing AI and other emerging technologies.Rea
