Buying Legal Conference 2026 is a gathering of leaders shaping the future of legal. Hosted by Buying Legal Council (BLC), the New York conference brings leaders from top legal departments together with peers who share responsibility for leading the department, safeguarding the company, enabling the business, and spending wisely.
The 2026 theme, “Architecting Measurable ROI in Legal,” gives general counsel, legal operations leaders, and legal procurement professionals a shared agenda. The program focuses on the decisions behind AI investment, vendor accountability, and legal department strategy, with speakers from large enterprise companies including Mastercard and McDonald’s.
Buying Legal Conference 2026 Overview
The conference takes place September 29 to 30 at 3 Times Square in New York. Here are the details as of September 7, 2026.
Detail | Buying Legal Conference 2026 |
|---|---|
Dates | September 29 to 30, 2026 |
Venue | 3 Times Square, 15th floor, New York, NY |
Organizer | Buying Legal Council (BLC) |
Format | Two-day, in-person conference |
Standard In-House Ticket | US$599 |
Who Can Register | In-house lawyers, high-level legal operations professionals, and legal procurement professionals |
CLE | The organizer has not specified a 2026 credit allocation in the public information checked |
Updated | September 7, 2026 |
Eligible in-house attendees can register for BLC while places remain available.
Registration covers in-house lawyers and the legal operations and procurement professionals who work alongside them. Capacity is limited. Vendor and law firm tickets are sold out, and Buying Legal Council says it will cancel and credit vendor purchases made through in-house registration.
The US$499 early-bird rate expired July 31, so plan around the US$599 standard price. Tickets are generally non-refundable. The organizer's terms allow it to deny a refund or deduct a US$150 fee, which is worth factoring into your travel approval.
For arrival planning, the program lists a welcome reception on September 28 from 5 to 8 p.m. Closing comments are scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on September 30. The two conference hotel blocks, at Hilton New York Times Square and Millennium Premier New York Times Square, are sold out; the conference itself takes place at 3 Times Square.
The program remains subject to change. Confirm reception access, ticket inclusions, and any CLE credit you need before booking.
What to Expect From the BLC Agenda
BLC’s agenda follows the decisions a legal leader has to defend: what to spend, which work belongs inside the department, and how to know whether a technology or outside counsel investment delivers value. AI ROI and governance sit alongside legal function design, technology adoption, budget strategy, and outside counsel management.
The program also covers vendor risk and data protection, plus the staffing, skills, and outsourcing choices that come with AI adoption. For legal operations and procurement leaders, those topics connect the purchase decision with the people and standards needed to make it work. Three selected discussions bring that focus into the schedule.
Making the Business Case for AI
Jessica Williams of Mastercard and Allison Martin of McDonald’s will discuss AI costs, savings, ROI, management, and governance on September 30 at 8:45 a.m. For a legal leader preparing an AI proposal, the session brings the investment case and the responsibilities of managing AI into the same discussion.
Putting Vendor Oversight Into Practice
The September 29 program includes a 9 a.m. discussion of AI accountability, vendor oversight, and practical guardrails. It addresses responsibilities that continue after a purchase, including how a department oversees its AI vendors and assigns ownership for governance.
Connecting Benchmarks to the Legal Budget
At 1 p.m. on September 29, a session will examine how legal benchmarks inform department strategy and ROI. It is a useful topic for leaders deciding which measures belong in the next budget discussion and how an industry comparison applies to their team’s work.
Our guide to AI in Legal Operations offers more context on the workflows and operating decisions behind these topics.
See GC AI at BLC
The program includes a presentation from Alessandra Colaci, GC AI Head of Academy, on September 29 at 10:30 a.m. for “Next Level Legal AI: Company Intelligence and Agentic Workflows for In-House.” If your team is evaluating AI for in-house work, this session gives you a concrete way to think about company context, the assignments AI can support, and where legal judgment stays with the team.
GC AI is an enterprise legal AI platform built for in-house legal teams. It supports work such as legal research and contract review, where the usefulness of an answer depends on both the legal question and your company's requirements. For example, Playbooks lets teams apply their contract review standards to an agreement.
For a closer look at GC AI, bring a research question or representative agreement to a product demonstration and discuss the source material, review steps, and output your team needs.
