There are several myths about the future of government legal work. Brian Thompson of Relativity discusses that in this post!

As discussed in his post titled (wait for it!) AI, Operational Infrastructure, and the Future of Government Legal Work (available here), Brian recently had the opportunity to speak with practitioners across government—including FOIA officers, investigators, litigators, and records managers—at the DGI EDRM Conference, where a consistent theme emerged: the current challenge is not rooted in the expertise inside government, but the operational infrastructure supporting it. These conversations, along with themes explored in my session, reinforced a shared reality.

As agencies explore modernization and, increasingly, the role of AI, a familiar set of assumptions continues to shape the conversation. Many are grounded in real constraints. But some are now limiting how agencies think about what is actually achievable. Here’s one of those myths:

Myth: Litigation, FOIA, and investigations are too different to live on one platform

At a surface level, this assumption makes sense. Each function operates under different rules, timelines, and oversight structures. In fact, in many cases, they should remain operationally distinct.

But complete separation at the system level has created its own challenges: duplicated data, inconsistent standards, and limited visibility across related matters.

The trick is to shift your paradigm from assuming that a shared platform will force all functions into a single workflow. Instead, leveraging a single platform for all of these projects presents an opportunity to create a shared operating environment—where data, governance, and prior work can be reused across missions.

While these missions are different and require strategic, focused work, the larger challenge for public sector legal teams is that they have been supported in isolation for too long.

So, what are six other myths about government legal work? And what does the future of government legal work look like in practice? Find out here, it’s only one click! It’s a myth to think that you won’t learn something from clicking! 😉

So, what do you think? How is your organization keeping up with changing demands? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using DALL-E-3, using the term “robot government employee working at their workstation in their office”.

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