AI Governance, Risk & Compliance

Yet, artificial intelligence comes a new layer of legal, regulatory, and ethical complexity. Organizations face growing expectations to ensure that AI systems are safe, transparent, and compliant with emerging standards, laws, and contractual commitments.

At Lee & Hayes, we help businesses navigate this complex AI landscape by providing practical, forward-thinking guidance on AI governance frameworks, risk management, and contractual protections. Our goal is to help organizations embrace AI confidently while minimizing risk and ensuring alignment with industry best practices.

Why We’re Different
Our team has deep technical insight into AI systems due to our extensive work with AI-related patent filings and complex technology matters. While our AI-related services go beyond IP, this technical expertise gives us an advantage—allowing us to understand the inner workings of AI models and anticipate the legal and operational risks that other firms may overlook.

We combine this technical understanding with a practical, business-focused approach to help companies build trust in their AI initiatives, stay ahead of regulatory changes, and deploy AI responsibly and effectively.

Key Areas of Expertise

Our experience extends across a broad range of AI-related legal and technical issues, including:

• AI governance frameworks and standards (NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC AI standards, EU AI Act, U.S. state-level AI regulations).
• AI compliance and ethics, including bias, fairness, and societal impact reviews.
• Generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning systems, and the unique challenges they pose for compliance and performance monitoring.
• Risk mitigation strategies for AI deployment across multiple industries.
• Contractual and transactional support, including licensing, procurement, and collaborative AI development.

Services Include

AI Risk Assessment
Our AI risk assessment services aim to help companies evaluate existing tools as well as integrate responsible AI practices throughout the development, deployment, and operational lifecycle of AI systems. We assist clients in:

• Evaluating AI systems and software products for regulatory, contractual, and ethical risks.
• Assessing operational risks tied to AI development pipelines, data usage, and outputs.
• Creating actionable risk mitigation strategies to ensure AI models meet both technical benchmarks and evolving industry expectations.

AI Contract Review & Transactional Support
AI-related contracts must account for unique and evolving risks. We assist clients by reviewing and negotiating AI provisions to ensure issues such as liability, assumption of risk, data ownership, and performance obligations are properly addressed. We also ensure that obligations with contractors, partners, or consumers are aligned with the AI product’s risk profile.

AI Governance Frameworks and Policy Development
We work with organizations to build and strengthen their AI governance structures. Our approach begins with a thorough review of existing policies and practices to evaluate alignment with regulatory standards and ethical AI principles. Through gap analysis and strategic recommendations, we help companies develop custom AI governance frameworks that promote accountability, transparency, and responsible AI use.

To support successful implementation, we provide training on legal obligations, risk mitigation, and ethical AI practices, ensuring that all levels of the organization are prepared for the challenges of AI deployment.

Integrated Expertise Across AI, Privacy & Cybersecurity
Our attorneys bring a unique combination of experience in AI governance, data privacy, and cybersecurity, allowing us to deliver advice that addresses the full spectrum of legal and technical risks associated with AI systems. Because these areas are closely intertwined, we approach AI governance holistically—ensuring that issues related to privacy, data protection, and security are seamlessly incorporated into our risk and compliance strategies.

IP Strategies for AI Technologies
Protecting intellectual property is critical in the AI space, where innovations are often intangible, complex, and rapidly evolving. Our team advises clients on a full spectrum of IP issues related to AI, including:

• Copyright and Generative AI: Guidance on authorship, ownership, and licensing of AI-generated content, as well as navigating current legal uncertainty and enforcement trends.
• AI-Related Patents: Assistance with identifying and protecting patentable aspects of AI technologies, including algorithms, model architectures, and technical applications.
• Trade Secret Protection: Developing strategies to safeguard proprietary AI models, training data, and development methodologies through confidentiality policies, NDAs, and secure workflows.

We help organizations create integrated IP protection strategies that align with their overall AI innovation and commercialization goals.

When needed, we also collaborate with outside technical experts and AI specialists to review model performance, assess bias, and ensure that AI outputs meet both legal and ethical standards. This integrated approach ensures that AI solutions are secure, compliant, and built to withstand regulatory and market scrutiny.