Smrithi Mohan is General Counsel at Awesome, the parent company of SmugMug and Flickr, where she oversees all legal, IP, privacy, and compliance matters for two of the world's most recognized photo-sharing platforms. She previously spent a decade at Dun & Bradstreet, where she built the company's first global IP and innovation practice. An elected Board of Education member and recognized Top Woman Leader, she speaks and writes on legal operations, IP strategy, leadership, and building legal functions from the ground up.

When a new AI feature ships or a new product is designed, general counsel may not be looped in until after key decisions are made. This creates risk because most product decisions have legal implications, especially around data use, user rights, and consent. That changes when legal teams are brought into the product development cycle at the outset, helping design outcomes that align with legal obligations and business goals. How can general counsel and legal teams move from being seen as gatekeepers to business drivers?

Shifting how general counsel and legal teams are viewed starts with building strong relationships across business teams. When legal leaders understand how product, engineering, and other teams operate, they are more likely to be included as ideas take shape. Early involvement enables general counsel to explain regulatory requirements and legal frameworks across different jurisdictions, thereby improving products and making them more defensible. It also creates space to ask fundamental questions in AI development upfront, including what data is being used, whether the company has the right to use it, who owns the outputs, and whether user information is collected with proper consent flows. Vendor relationships require the same level of attention, as older contracts may not address AI and often need audits, addendums, and updated terms.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels talk with Smrithi Mohan, General Counsel at Awesome, about how legal teams can integrate into AI and product development. Smrithi explains why general counsel needs to act as business architects and not just legal advisors, and what it takes to make that shift. She outlines the core legal questions teams should address when developing AI tools and other products, how to manage third-party vendor contract risks, and the evolving legal gray areas surrounding AI-generated content and platform liability. Smrithi also offers practical advice on building genuine, collaborative relationships across teams.

Kristin Calve is the Editor & Publisher of Corporate Counsel Business Journal and the Co-founder of Law Business Media. She leads editorial strategy focused on AI governance, legal operations, and board-level risk, and convenes forward-leaning legal leaders through interviews, events, and industry analysis.

Controlled AI deployment is one of the most pressing challenges legal and business leaders face right now. New AI tools are often adopted quickly without the full understanding of how they're being used, where data goes, and who's accountable for the outcomes. Some teams explore AI without direction or intention. Others prescribe it with guardrails, defining who can use it and how. The gap between those two approaches is where risk lives. So, how can organizations deploy and use AI without losing control?

Legal operations teams are often accountable for how AI is used in practice. They understand the regulatory landscape and manage contracts and deadlines. They're often involved in operations across finance, HR, sales, and other business functions, so they know how those processes work and why they were built that way. That institutional knowledge matters as AI is introduced into those systems. At the same time, prompt documentation, AI notetakers, and recordings are introducing new risks. Teams may not know what is being captured, where it is going, or how it could become discoverable. Supply chain exposure adds another layer of risk. Vendors might embed AI into the tools organizations already rely on, potentially affecting an organization's overall privacy and security posture.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels talk with Kristin Calve, Editor & Publisher of Corporate Counsel Business Journal and Co-founder of Law Business Media, about how organizations are navigating AI deployment and risk. Kristin explains how companies are deploying AI inconsistently and the challenge of controlling its use. She shares how regulatory requirements shape accountability and why legal operations teams often bear responsibility for what's permissible. Kristin also explains the risks of prompts and recordings becoming discoverable and discusses how AI increases speed and capacity, but does not replace the need for judgment.

Gabrielle Kohlmeier is a lawyer, tech whisperer, and transformation executive in a lifelong love affair with growth mindset and sustainable innovation. From building a Fortune 30 legal and policy approach to antitrust, to navigating retail risk, to leading global legal AI adoption and outperforming teams. She helps organizations rightsize risk and turn disruption into strategic value.

Many companies are rushing to adopt AI tools and publish AI policies, yet far fewer are investing in AI fluency across their workforce. Knowing how to use an AI tool is not the same as understanding what it is doing, what data it collects and uses, and the privacy, security, and compliance obligations that come with using it. Without that level of understanding, organizations risk using AI without fully grasping its impact. So, what does true AI fluency look like in practice?

Organizations spend time creating AI governance policies, and sometimes those policies are not operationalized. Governance then becomes "precious" when it is documented and published but not embedded into how teams actually work. That gap becomes more pronounced when teams lack the AI fluency needed to apply governance to their day-to-day use of AI tools. To be effective, governance needs to be lived, with clear accountability, ongoing feedback loops, and policies and processes regularly revisited as AI use cases evolve. It also requires establishing privacy and security guardrails that allow teams to experiment with AI responsibly, while right-sizing risks.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels talk with Gabrielle Kohlmeier, Legal and Innovation Executive, about building AI fluency and operationalizing responsible AI use. Gabrielle explains why AI fluency goes beyond simply using AI tools and requires a deeper understanding of the ethical and legal obligations that come with them. She shares how AI governance often breaks down in practice and what it takes to truly operationalize it, while enabling responsible AI experimentation with clear guardrails. Gabrielle also highlights numerous curated resources to help companies stay grounded as AI evolves and offers a practical privacy tip that applies to everyday internet and AI use.