The ever-escalating complexity of the business operating environment is among the reasons strategy* is so hard, and so vital.

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Regalytics estimates there are over 5 million regulatory bodies worldwide—which seems impossibly high until you consider the levels at which regulation occurs (municipal, county, state, federal, international) and the variety of regulatory bodies (legislatures, executives, agencies, judiciaries). Regulators regulate. Regulations do not merely accrete. Regulations intersect, interact, and often conflict. Complexity compounds.

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Generative AI, for example, raises net new operational considerations while radically altering the customer and competitive landscapes.* But GenAI also introduces net new legal considerations by triggering novel applications of existing legal frameworks while also spurring the regulatory apparatus to create new rules to which business must now adhere.*

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GenAI is merely a recent example of net new complexity. The shift to digital infrastructure and the attendant Cambrian explosion in data volumes that made GenAI possible had already introduced novel legal complexities related to privacy, data security, ediscovery, et cetera—complexity that will only continue to compound.

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Professor Dan Katz and his collaborators have done the best empirical research measuring increasing legal complexity. As Professor Katz has long explained, legal professionals are in many respects complexity engineers.* Some create complexity. But most legal professionals are strategic enablers who help business solve for complexity. As complexity increases, so, too, does the value of legal guidance.