While we haven’t heard the end of COVID-19, many governments across the world are beginning to scale back—or remove altogether—pandemic safety measures and restrictions. Similarly, the “pandemic truce” which temporarily slowed acquisitions, activist campaigns and regulatory enforcement have long since subsided. What’s left is a changed and changing legal and social system with new expectations for corporate behavior.

Gartner experts see four broad trends that that will drive legal and compliance risks in the coming years: Rapidly changing societal expectations; A fundamentally different relationship between employees and their employers; Escalating geopolitical competition and disruption; and a regulatory system trying to keep pace with the blistering rate of technological advancement.

Society’s Changing Expectations