How can legal leaders transition from the "Department of No" to the "Department of Growth"? In this milestone episode of Meeting of the Minds – The Legal AI Podcast, Hal Marcus and Memme Onwudiwe sit down with Workday’s Chief Legal Officer, Rich Sauer, to reflect on a year of explosive AI growth and project the trends for 2026. From his 20-year tenure at Microsoft to leading legal at Workday, Rich provides a masterclass on balancing innovation with responsibility.

What You'll Learn:

The Three Pillars of Modern Legal: How Workday organizes its legal team around driving growth, protecting the brand, and earning stakeholder trust.
Agentic AI & The "Front Door": Why AI agents are becoming the new interface for legal departments to manage high-volume routine inquiries.
The End of the Contract Silo: How moving contract data into systems like Salesforce transforms "file cabinet" documents into active business drivers.
Navigating the Regulatory Patchwork: Why the EU AI Act, NIST Framework, and ISO 42001 are valuable guideposts for global AI adoption.
AI and the Human-in-the-Loop: Why soft skills like trust, empathy, and persuasive communication are more valuable now than ever before.
The Legal Business Model Tipping Point: Rich's take on the future of the billable hour and how AI is transforming the dynamic between in-house teams and outside counsel.

About the GuestRich Sauer is the Chief Legal Officer & Head of Corporate Affairs at Workday. With a career spanning twenty years at Microsoft and previous experience at Sullivan & Cromwell, Rich is a leading voice on the intersection of technology, global policy, and corporate governance. At Workday, he oversees the responsible AI team and is a primary advocate for risk-based frameworks that unlock business innovation while protecting stakeholder trust.

Episode Resources

Rich Sauer on LinkedIn: Rich Sauer
Workday Official Website: Workday.com
Workday AI & Innovation: Workday AI
Evisort (Part of Workday): Evisort Website
Regulatory Frameworks Mentioned:
EU AI Act: Official Information
NIST AI Risk Management Framework: NIST.gov
ISO/IEC 42001 (AI Management System): ISO Standards
Hal Marcus on LinkedIn: Hal Marcus
Memme Onwudiwe on LinkedIn: Memme Onwudiwe