AI Governance

What is AI Governance?

As artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted at an extraordinary pace across all sectors, AI Governance is becoming a top priority. It provides the processes, standards and guardrails that ensure the safe and ethical use of AI within organisations.​

At Simmons & Simmons, we help organisations operationalise principles such as safe AI use, fairness, transparency, and accountability through actionable processes, policies, controls, and oversight. This ensures responsible AI development and deployment, enabling our clients to navigate the opportunities and risks of this transformative technology.​
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Our dedicated AI Governance offering supports organisations in establishing robust frameworks to address the growing risks and demands associated with AI adoption.

Why now?

The rapid acceleration of AI adoption has created an urgent need for robust AI Governance. Many organisations are deploying AI at scale without fully understanding the associated risks - resulting in the rise of ‘shadow AI’ and use cases that expose them to legal, regulatory, and reputational threats.​

As new AI laws, sector-specific guidelines, and ethical frameworks emerge, organisations must act decisively to embed responsible use, risk management, and alignment with global standards into their operations. Failing to do so risks not only regulatory penalties and operational disruption, but also long-term damage to trust and brand integrity.​

Crucially, organisations with strong AI Governance frameworks are consistently faster to innovate and bring AI-driven products and services to market - turning compliance into a competitive advantage.

What should organisations do?

1. AI Inventory and Risk Management​

• AI Governance Strategy: define and articulate your ‘NorthStar’ to ensure that AI is developed and used responsibly, ethically, and in alignment with your values.​
• AI Inventory: Create processes to catalogue AI systems, ensure compliance, and maintain audit readiness.​
• Risk Assessments: Identify and mitigate ethical, legal, and operational risks to meet regulatory standards.​
• Policy Development: Regularly update AI policies to align with evolving regulations and best practices.​
• Tooling Implementation: Deploy GRC platforms (e.g. OneTrust) to streamline risk management and oversight.​

2. AI Literacy and Organisational Training​

• AI Literacy: Deliver training to enhance AI understanding and support informed, responsible decision-making.​
• Workshops: Host discussions to tackle AI governance challenges and foster collaboration.​

3. Vendor and Contractual Oversight​

• Vendor Due Diligence: Update processes, templates, and playbooks to address AI-specific risks.​
• Contract Management: Define clear terms to manage vendor relationships and mitigate risks.​

4. Standards and Compliance Readiness​

• Preparation: Conduct gap analyses and implement improvements for alignment to global standards and frameworks, including ISO 42001 and NIST AI RMF.​
• Governance Frameworks: Establish structures and accountability to manage AI risks effectively.​

5. Crisis Preparedness and Response​

• Crisis Response: Develop strategies to address reputational harm from AI-generated content.​
• Cultural Reviews: Assess organisational culture to identify and address gaps in responsible AI adoption.​

Why choose Simmons & Simmons for your AI Governance needs?

"Currently, global AI regulations are a bit of a patchwork and Simmons & Simmons does a great job at navigating and advising us on the relevance of various parts of existing regulations.”

Legal 500 (2025)

We're uniquely positioned to support your AI governance programmes by combining our market-leading reputation, technical capabilities, and hands-on experience, we offer a truly distinctive approach to AI governance.​

Market Leadership: Our AI group is widely recognised, with 130+ lawyers, governance experts, data scientists and AI engineers across our global offices and practice groups. Peter Lee and Minesh Tanna are contributing authors to The Law of Artificial Intelligence (Sweet & Maxwell), the leading UK practitioner's book on AI and the law.​

Integrated Legal and Technical Expertise: Since 2016, our dedicated Wavelength AI team has provided a unique offering, combining AI engineering and legal expertise. This allows us to deliver solutions that address both the legal and technical dimensions of AI governance.​

Proven Track Record:​

• Lead AI Governance counsel for global TMT organisation
• AI Governance counsel for global healthcare and life sciences company
• AI counsel for numerous asset managers

We take a strategic and tailored approach to AI governance, ensuring our advice is practical, sector-specific, and aligned with the unique needs of each organisation we work with.​

• Tailored Solutions: We customise our guidance to address the specific challenges and priorities of each client and their industry, recognising that no two organisations are the same.​
• Industry Leadership: Chairing the Society for Computers and Law’s AI and ESG groups positions us at the cutting edge of AI governance discussions and developments.​
• Collaborative Partnerships: We work closely with technology providers to deliver integrated AI governance solutions that combine legal, regulatory, and technical perspectives.

"The team is very bright and knowledgeable, having the latest information on AI regulatory frameworks and updates. They work with some of the key players on the market...”

Legal 500 (2025)