AI and Cloud Computing: The New Frontier for Corporate Legal Counsel
By Enrique del Castaño
In Latin America, nearly 50% of companies are already adopting cloud services and AI assistance. This shift demands our attention, as it fundamentally transforms our professional activity. How will legal practice evolve for companies in general, and for the lawyer in particular?
To navigate this ecosystem, we must focus on three strategic pillars:
A) Data Security and Governance
As legal advisors, our priority is information security. Client data is a vital asset; therefore, it cannot be used to train public models or be subject to human review. Ensuring privacy and confidentiality is the only way to guarantee attorney-client privilege in a digital environment.
B) Efficiency in Legal Advisory
We are processing more information in less time, requiring us to update our professional lens. While AI automates complex operational processes—reducing human intervention to a critical minimum—legal professionals remain indispensable. AI can process data, but it cannot judge or evaluate the reputational and ethical risks of a decision. This paradigm shift is happening now.
C) Legal Risks and Challenges
Legislation often trails behind technological innovation. Until comprehensive laws are fully established, we must rely on available legal tools to manage new risks. This is the "new (old) role" of the lawyer: drafting clauses that define that any "work" generated by AI from client data belongs to the client, preventing it from falling into a legal limbo (public domain).
Mitigation Tools:
DPAs (Data Processing Addendums): Essential to guarantee that providers return information exactly as delivered.
Algorithmic Auditing: Advising boards to ensure AI does not make biased decisions that could lead to legal contingencies.
Director Liability: In Argentine judicial practice, the "duty of care" (the buen hombre de negocios standard) is extending to the custody of digital assets. Lawyers must warn directors about the civil and criminal liabilities of failing to secure cloud-based data. Just as we audit financial statements today, the lawyer of the near future will audit AI to prevent discriminatory decisions in labor or consumer relations.
The Regulatory Landscape
The EU AI Act stands as the global benchmark, setting the tone for Latin America. Meanwhile, the U.S. maintains a more "liberal" business-oriented approach, where AI is primarily governed by Copyright and Patent Law. This brings us to a fundamental question: Who owns the tool, and who owns its output?
In Argentina, our legal framework is built upon:
Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326 (The cornerstone of this field).
Law No. 26,388 on Computer Crimes.
Law No. 11,723 on Intellectual Property (and Law 25,036, which protects software and databases).
Law No. 27,078 (Digital Argentina Act) regarding net neutrality and information technologies.
Conclusion
As legal professionals, we must warn local business leaders: without proper contractual coverage, their innovations and data are at risk. Our mission is to ensure that data uploaded to the cloud remains secure and that any derivative benefits are legally protected.
Thank you for your attention.