Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from an emerging technology to a core operating tool inside corporations. As AI systems take on greater responsibility within the enterprise, directors, general counsel, and compliance officers face a governance challenge with few settled precedents. How do traditional fiduciary duties and compliance frameworks apply when people oversee an “actor” which is a machine providing advice and informing decisions at the highest level?
Regulators across the globe — from the EU's AI Act to Singapore's sector-specific AI governance principles to evolving U.S. enforcement priorities — are moving quickly to answer this question. Often regulators are moving faster than boards of director and corporate compliance programs can adapt. For legal and compliance professionals, the risk is no longer theoretical: a poorly overseen AI system can create liability exposure, regulatory penalties, and reputational risk just as readily as any human actor within the company.
This Masterclass is designed to give participants both the ethical grounding and the practical governance tools needed to oversee AI responsibly. The program opens with a foundational hour on ethics, examining the core ethical tensions AI introduces into corporate practice — bias and fairness, transparency and explainability, accountability when decisions are automated, and the evolving standards governing lawyers' own use of AI tools in practice.
Building on this foundation, the program turns to fiduciary duties, exploring how the duty of care requires boards and officers to be informed, engaged overseers of AI risk rather than passive recipients of technical assurances, and how the duty of loyalty demands vigilance around conflicts of interest, data misuse, and third-party AI vendor relationships that may not align with the corporation's interests. Further, the program will explore the shield of the business judgment rule in corporate governance.
The program's central module turns from principle to practice, addressing how to build an “effective” AI compliance program. Participants will learn how to conduct a legal risk assessment tailored to AI systems and will work through the framework of the seven elements of an “effective” compliance program under the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines from AI standards, policies, procedures and internal controls; AI reporting lines and setting up the AI compliance office; AI training and communication; AI auditing, monitoring, testing, surveillance and reporting; AI incentives and discipline; and updating the AI compliance program and the protocols for AI internal investigations.
The final segment addresses the professional conduct, ethical duties, and legal responsibilities governing Singapore and international legal practitioners, general counsel, compliance officers, and board directors when deploying and overseeing AI systems. This section critically evaluates core ethics standards—including confidentiality, duty of competence, conflicts of interest, supervisory responsibilities over automated tools, and duty of candor to tribunals and clients when AI influences decision-making. Through practical case scenarios and regulatory benchmarks, participants will develop actionable frameworks for maintaining professional integrity, ethical oversight, and strict compliance with legal ethics codes amidst rapid technological innovation.
Participants will leave with a working framework for advising on, building, and overseeing AI governance and compliance programs grounded in fiduciary duties, regulatory guidance, and practical implementation experience.
The SMU Law Academy Expert Masterclasses are advanced skills and case-study based programmes where participants will learn from the industry’s top experts in a specific area of practical importance. Typically taught in a face-to-face format, such sessions will help participants to acquire practical in-depth knowhow to aid their development. All the masterclass instructors are specially curated and are recognised as experts in their areas.
SPEAKER
Carole Basri is a Visiting Law Professor at Peking University School of Transactional Law, teaching International Corporate Practice, Global Corporate Compliance, and AI and Compliance. She created the Fordham University Law School Corporate Compliance LLM, the first of its kind globally.
A graduate of Barnard College and NYU School of Law, she began her career in the federal government, serving on the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and the FTC. She later held in-house and law firm roles, including at NW Ayer, Baker & McKenzie, and Maidenform, and was a consultant to Deloitte & Touche, helping to create its Ethics and Compliance practice. She also served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of China On Line Inc. and as Anti-Corruption and Legal Advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
Ms. Basri was Senior Vice President of B3 Legal and led the Greater New York Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel for over a decade. She is President of Corporate Lawyering Group LLC building compliance programs for companies like Dun & Bradstreet, Cendant, and Dannon. Further, she created the ACC's Certification Program and served since 2017 as its Chief Advisor.
She has authored numerous treatises, including works on Artificial Intelligence and Compliance (PLI), Corporate Legal Departments (PLI), and International Corporate Practice (PLI), plus eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel (Thomson Reuters), Corporate Compliance Practice Guide (Lexis) plus two casebooks (Carolina Academic Press). Her forthcoming book, National Security and Compliance, publishes in early 2027 (PLI).
FEES
| a. | Early Bird Price (registration by 28 October 2026)
Registration fee of S$353.16* (inclusive of GST) applies. |
| b. | Regular Price (registration after 28 October 2026)
Registration fee of S$392.40* (inclusive of GST) applies. |
| | *Please note that there will be no refund of any fees should the participant cancel the registration/ fail to attend the event. However, registration is transferable. Notice of any change in participant should be sent to SMULA by 4 November 2026. SMU Law Academy reserves the right to cancel or postpone any event. In such case, we will arrange for the refund of fees paid. |
