Open Future Forum is bringing its established Silicon Valley executive network to General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers
Silicon Valley and San Francisco have plenty of legal conferences, law firm events and professional networks. There are fewer places where General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers can meet regularly with peers to discuss the issues they are handling inside their companies.
Open Future Forum is addressing that gap with the General Counsel Executive Forum, a year-round community and event series for senior in-house legal leaders across Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
The forum will cover AI governance, cybersecurity, board matters, privacy, M&A, regulatory risk, legal operations and enterprise technology. It builds on Open Future Forum’s existing communities for CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, CMOs, investors, founders and AI leaders.
For General Counsel, access to that wider executive network is an important part of the proposition.
What General Counsel Need From an Executive Community
General Counsel already have many opportunities to attend legal events. The question is whether those events provide access to the people and information that are useful at their level.
A room of sitting General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers has a different dynamic from a large legal conference. Board matters, transactions, cybersecurity incidents, regulatory problems and internal governance decisions often benefit from candid discussion among people with comparable responsibilities.
The same applies to the subjects themselves. Senior legal executives are increasingly working on matters that cross traditional functional boundaries.
An acquisition involves finance, operations, security and legal. An AI deployment can involve technology, data, contracts, privacy and governance. A cybersecurity incident can quickly become a regulatory, litigation and board matter.
A useful General Counsel community therefore needs strong legal peers, but it also benefits from connections to the rest of the C-suite.
Open Future Forum Already Has the Executive Network
Open Future Forum was founded in Silicon Valley and has developed communities around specific executive roles.
The General Counsel Executive Forum will sit alongside its CEO, CFO, CISO, CMO, investor and AI leadership communities.
That structure gives legal executives access to people who see the same business from different positions.
A General Counsel working on an acquisition may want to understand the priorities of CFOs, investors and deal advisers. A GC responsible for AI governance needs to know what CISOs and technology leaders are seeing. Board issues frequently require legal, financial and operational judgment at the same time.
The General Counsel forum will provide a dedicated peer group while retaining access to that broader network.
The CFO Forum Provides an Early Example
Open Future Forum has already used this approach with senior finance executives.
Its CFO Executive Forum runs recurring gatherings, panels and private events across the San Francisco Bay Area.
Janice “Jan” Berthold, EVP at Heffernan Insurance Brokers, recently wrote publicly about her experience with the community.
“They’ve built something that genuinely serves CFOs.”
Berthold said the discussions are substantive, the participants are sharp and the topics matter to the executives attending.
She also noted the benefit of building a continuing community:
“The community they’ve created keeps people coming back because the value compounds over time.”
Her description of what Murray and Yvonne Newlands have built is particularly relevant to the new General Counsel initiative:
“They’re not building an event. They’re building a resource that CFOs actually need.”
Open Future Forum is now applying that model to senior legal executives.
AI Is Changing the General Counsel’s Role
AI is giving General Counsel another reason to work more closely with executives outside the legal department.
As companies move AI into production, legal teams are becoming involved in decisions about data access, contracts, privacy, governance, responsibility and disclosure.
The issues become more complicated as AI systems move from generating information to taking actions within enterprise systems.
Open Future Forum has been building its enterprise AI work alongside its executive communities.
Silvio Sangineto of Microsoft and Stanford recently described the organization this way:
“Open Future Forum is helping define the enterprise AI agenda in Silicon Valley. It brings together the executives, investors and AI leaders turning emerging technology into measurable business impact. Murray Newlands has built one of the most influential and trusted executive communities shaping the future of enterprise AI.”
That work gives the General Counsel forum access to executives already dealing with AI deployment, security and investment inside their organizations.
Research Adds Another Layer
Open Future Forum also publishes first-party research based on survey and qualitative data from its executive network.
The research looks at enterprise AI from several executive perspectives, including CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, CMOs and investors. Its work for General Counsel extends that research into legal leadership and governance.
This provides a way to compare how different executives view the same issue.
Open Future Forum reports that 11% of companies have no single AI owner. Its security research has found that 67% of CISOs identify agent access as a leading concern, while only 35% report having a dedicated budget for it.
For a General Counsel, unclear ownership creates practical governance questions. Someone has to determine who can authorize systems, who controls access, how responsibilities are documented and where accountability sits.
Wickey Wang on Open Future Forum’s Research
The research has also received outside attention.
Wickey Wang, an IT Compliance and Security Leader at Owlet Baby Care who also teaches cybersecurity, governance, compliance frameworks and AI security, reviewed Open Future Forum’s work alongside other enterprise AI security research.
She described its CISO AI Leverage Report as:
“one of the most distinctive additions to the enterprise AI security research landscape.”
Wang highlighted the report’s attention to ownership, budgets, buying authority, governance and accountability, rather than limiting the analysis to technical security threats.
Those subjects overlap directly with the work of General Counsel. Technical vulnerabilities may sit with security teams, but questions about authority, responsibility, contractual obligations and corporate governance frequently involve legal leadership.
What Makes a Good General Counsel Event?
For senior legal executives, attendance numbers are not necessarily the best measure of an event.
A smaller gathering can be more useful when the participants have comparable responsibilities and the discussion is specific enough to justify their time.
Open Future Forum plans to use a mix of private gatherings and broader events. Some discussions will be off the record. Others will bring General Counsel together with executives from finance, cybersecurity, investment and other functions.
The aim is to create an ongoing community rather than a single annual conference.
That allows members to meet repeatedly and continue conversations as issues develop inside their companies.
General Counsel Events in Silicon Valley and San Francisco
The Bay Area is a demanding market for legal executives.
Technology companies can grow quickly, transactions are frequent, regulations continue to change and AI is creating governance questions that did not exist in the same form several years ago.
General Counsel are expected to understand these developments while continuing to handle the traditional responsibilities of the legal function.
The strongest professional communities can help by giving them access to peers dealing with similar decisions.
Open Future Forum’s wider executive network adds another dimension. General Counsel can meet with their legal peers while also gaining exposure to the concerns of CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, investors and AI leaders.
A New General Counsel Community in Silicon Valley
The General Counsel Executive Forum is new, so its standing will depend on the people it attracts and the quality of the discussions it produces.
Open Future Forum starts with an established C-suite network, an existing calendar of executive events and a growing body of first-party research. Participants in its other communities have publicly endorsed the model, while outside experts have recognized its research.
Those foundations give the General Counsel Executive Forum a credible opportunity to become one of the top General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer communities and event series in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
The first events will show whether the model that has worked with other executive groups translates successfully to senior legal leadership.
