50 THE US-ISRAEL | Legal Review 2025/26 Hila: “AI governance, data privacy, and cybersecurity remain the three most consequential areas for any organization operating at scale. The regulatory landscape is shifting at an extraordinary pace, with new statutes, technical standards, and enforcement frameworks emerging across jurisdictions almost weekly. At the same time, enterprise customers have become increasingly sophisticated in their expectations, seeking greater transparency, stronger contractual protections, and clearer models of shared accountability. Microsoft’s AI Customer Commitments that include built in transparency tools, clear documentation, responsible by design safety features and its Customer Copyright Commitment reflect this shift toward heightened expectations and a more mature trust posture. In this environment, compliance is no longer simply a legal requirement; it is a core driver of trust and, increasingly, a competitive advantage. Organizations that can demonstrate robust governance, credible risk management, and verifiable adherence to regulatory norms are better positioned to win and retain customer confidence in a market where trust is now a differentiator, not a peripheral factor – it is central to commercial success.” How has the role of the legal function inside Microsoft evolved in recent years as the business has expanded into new technologies and markets? Hila: “Microsoft’s legal function has evolved from a traditional risk management role into a technology enabled, strategy shaping partner. As the company expanded into AI and cloud, our Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) department had to modernize how it works both in expertise and in the tools we use. A major shift has been the department’s adoption of AI in its own workflows. We built new skills and roles inside the legal team, adding data scientists, engineers, and policy experts alongside lawyers. We also launched an internal AI initiative which accelerated the responsible adoption of AI across our operations. Today, tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot are part of our daily practice, helping us streamline research, contract review, and analysis, and allowing attorneys to focus on higher value advisory work.” We also spoke with Amir Markovits, Head of Legal at Venn City, a proptech startup founded in 2016, about the trends impacting GCs and his sector. Where do you see the biggest legal or commercial friction when scaling this model, and how do external counsel help you grow without losing the flexibility that makes neighborhood-level solutions work? Amir: “In its early stages, Venn focused on building communities in multi-family residential complexes in Tel Aviv. Over the last five years, Venn has shifted toward developing a SaaS platform that streamlines tenants’ interactions with property managers in multi-residential buildings. By offering Venn’s platform to residents, landlords and property managers can manage the full tenant lifecycle through a dedicated app - from applying for an apartment, through accessing services (e.g., maintenance requests, keyless entry, and purchasing pool memberships), and ultimately through move-out. What makes Venn’s solution unique is its combination of a technology platform with the community-building DNA from Venn’s early days. Venn has successfully helped residents in the US get to know their neighbors in a culture where neighbors often remain strangers. The platform enables residents to create virtual interestbased groups and organize both online and in-person gatherings. The biggest friction arises at the intersection of technology and a highly regulated environment. Although multifamily housing is a traditional industry, it is governed by a patchwork of federal, state, and municipal rules, many of which were not designed with integrated digital platforms in mind. As Venn scales, we are constantly balancing standardization - which is critical for a SaaS business - with the need to adapt to legal requirements around housing, payments, consumer protection, and data privacy. We are also balancing our efforts to use technology to deliver the best possible tenant experience with the regulatory constraints that can limit how solutions are deployed. External counsel is essential in helping us navigate this complexity pragmatically. The value is not only in identifying legal constraints, but also in helping us design compliant frameworks that preserve operational flexibility. We rely on counsel who understand both the regulatory environment and the commercial realities of property management, and who can translate legal requirements into scalable, practical solutions rather than rigid prohibitions.”
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