Hey there Legal Rebels! 👋 I'm excited to share with you the 11th episode of the 2025 season of the LawDroid Manifesto podcast, where I will be continuing to interview key legal innovators to learn how they do what they do. You're going to enjoy this one!
If you want to understand how politics, technology, and law are colliding to create unprecedented business risks in our rapidly changing world, you need to listen to this episode. Sean is at the forefront of analyzing these intersections and offers a unique framework that helps us navigate this complexity with practical strategies.
Navigating the Collision of Politics, Technology, and Law in Business
Join me as I interview Sean West, co-founder of Hence.ai and author of the timely new book "Unruly: Fighting Back When Politics, AI, and the Law Upend the Rules of Business."
In this insightful podcast episode, Sean explores how the traditional boundaries between politics, technology, and law are dissolving, creating new synthetic risks that most organizations aren't structured to handle. He shares his journey from international affairs student to global risk analyst to tech entrepreneur, and how these experiences shaped his understanding of our current moment.
Sean introduces his concept of the "Unruly Triangle" — a framework that helps business leaders understand and navigate the complex interactions between political shifts, technological disruption, and legal transformations. His stories and insights underscore why companies need a more integrated approach across these traditionally siloed domains to thrive in an increasingly volatile world.
This episode is essential listening for legal professionals, business leaders, and anyone trying to make sense of our rapidly changing landscape, offering valuable perspectives on how to not just survive but strategically position yourself for success.
The Skinny
Sean West discusses his new book "Unruly" which examines how the intersection of politics, technology, and law creates unprecedented challenges for businesses. He explains his concept of the "Unruly Triangle": how these three domains interact to create synthetic risks that organizations aren't currently structured to handle.
Sean shares his background in international politics, his experiences at Georgetown during 9/11, and how his career path led him from political risk analysis at Eurasia Group to founding Hence.ai, a legal technology company. Throughout the conversation, Sean emphasizes that while the world may seem chaotic, business leaders have many tools at their disposal to navigate these challenges if they can understand the structural forces at play.
Key Takeaways:
The world is experiencing a shift from globalization toward divergence, with nations creating different sets of rules rather than converging toward a single global standard
The combination of politics, law, and technology creates three new synthetic risks: geo-legal risk, artificial politics risk, and legal AI risk
Most organizations are structured in siloed departments that aren't designed to handle these intersectional challenges
Technology (especially AI) is creating both risks and opportunities that have political and legal implications
White-collar workers (including lawyers) may face job disruption from AI, potentially creating political backlash due to their socioeconomic power
Business leaders need to think beyond their specific functional areas and understand how these domains interact to effectively navigate today's complex environment
Having a forecasting mindset allows companies to prepare for potential risks rather than simply reacting to them
Notable Quotes:
"Politics is shifting. We're exiting the globalization era that had kind of convergence of rules and norms at the same time that the role of law and the rule of law in society is coming under stress." —Sean West (00:04:46-00:04:54)
"It's even worse than the fact that all three of these [politics, law, technology] are changing at once. It's that they're colliding with each other and creating new synthetic risks we've never been prepared for." —Sean West (00:05:34-00:05:40)
"Technology has a political reaction function. You go invent driverless cars and put them on the street and the political system will tell you whether they think that's good or safe or something to support or something to stop." —Sean West (00:08:10-00:08:17)
"Your legal department may need oversight of government affairs and politics to be successful in the future. Your technology team may need to be interacting with legal and your political folks a lot more than they are today." —Sean West (00:36:26-00:36:33)
"Our corporate organization is designed for the past. The future is much blurrier. And that's why I think companies are really uncomfortable and flat-footed in this environment." —Sean West (00:36:38-00:36:44)
Clips
From Domestic to Diplomatic
The Future’s Challenges in Politics, AI, and Law
Language as a Gateway to Understanding
Speaking Truth to Power
AI is Coming for White Collar Workers
Sean West provides a new framework for understanding our complex world through the "Unruly Triangle" of politics, law, and technology. His concept helps make sense of what can often feel like a chaotic and overwhelming environment. Most importantly, Sean emphasizes that while these challenges are real, businesses and leaders have many tools at their disposal to navigate them effectively if they can understand the structural forces at work and reorganize their approach accordingly.
Closing Thoughts
What strikes me most about my conversation with Sean is how he's managed to articulate something many of us have been feeling but couldn't quite put into words. The world does feel increasingly "unruly," but Sean's framework gives us a practical way to understand these changes beyond just feeling overwhelmed by them.
As legal innovators, we need to be particularly attuned to these intersections. The legal profession sits at a critical junction in the Unruly Triangle, and how we adapt our organizations, skill sets, and mindsets will determine whether we thrive or struggle in this new reality. Sean's insights remind us that while we can't control these massive global shifts, we can certainly position ourselves to navigate them more effectively.
I highly recommend picking up a copy of "Unruly" when it launches on March 25th. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas. How is your organization handling these intersections? Are you structured to manage these new synthetic risks? Let me know in the comments!
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