Legal hold
An instruction, once litigation or a regulatory inquiry is reasonably anticipated, to preserve records and often to route them through counsel, including a defense record or concession log. A legal hold can change what a defender is permitted to say out loud in a live challenge and how a concession is worded. Confirm with your legal or compliance function whether a hold is in effect before the challenge starts, not during it.
Defined in 5 GAGE programs, which carry 7 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Certified AI Governance Professional (CAIGP).
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
An instruction, once litigation or a regulatory inquiry is reasonably anticipated, to preserve records and often to route them through counsel, including a defense record or concession log. A legal hold can change what a defender is permitted to say out loud in a live challenge and how a concession is worded. Confirm with your legal or compliance function whether a hold is in effect before the challenge starts, not during it.
A pause on an organization's normal data or record retention and deletion schedule, triggered by an open finding, complaint, or regulator inquiry, ensuring evidence connected to an active matter is not deleted simply because a routine retention period happens to expire during that matter.
A directive that suspends normal deletion of records once litigation or an inquiry is reasonably anticipated, so relevant evidence is preserved. Destroying records that should have been on hold is a distinct and serious problem, independent of the underlying incident.
A directive, typically issued by legal counsel, that suspends normal deletion of records because litigation, a regulatory investigation, or a government inquiry is pending or reasonably anticipated. Overrides every other factor in a deletion decision while active.
An instruction suspending routine destruction of records within a defined scope, sent to custodians and to the administrators who can actually stop automated deletion.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first module of every program is free with a free account.
- Scoring the estate: which data is load-bearing, which is liability, which is landfill · The Estate Survey, Certified AI Data Governance Professional (CADGP)
- The deletion decision: the terabytes your organization should destroy this quarter, defended · The Money of Data, Certified AI Data Governance Professional (CADGP)
- The logging architecture: what your organization's systems must record, for whom, for how long · Evidence Engineering, Certified AI Governance Professional (CAIGP)
- Defending the file: the live challenge and the amendments you concede · Adversarial Governance, Certified AI Governance Professional (CAIGP)
- Building the Audit-Ready AI Program · Lab: Regulated Industries, Certified AI Transformation Professional (CATP)
- Labeling Compliance Audits · AI Content Labeling, Certified China AI Regulatory Professional (CCARP)
- Investigation governance · Financial Risk, Fraud, and Financial Crime, Certified Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Professional (CEGP)
Where it shows up at work
A definition is where Legal hold starts. The lessons above teach it inside the competencies below, which are what job descriptions ask for and what the GAGE credential records. Every link here is drawn from the same careers map that builds a role's readiness check.
Collects, labels and preserves the evidence that a control operated, a decision was made, and a claim can be defended to an auditor or regulator.
2 lessons on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Scopes an AI audit, sets criteria, samples, interviews, tests, writes findings with condition, criteria, cause, effect and recommendation, and tracks remediation.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Classifies AI incidents by severity, runs containment, preserves evidence, manages notification, and closes the loop with lessons learned.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Roles that hire for it
Each role page shows the full competency set, what the seat decides, and a readiness check against your own evidence.
- AI Auditorneeds it at depth · 9 open postings this week
- Chief Audit Executive, AI audit editionneeds it at depth
- AI Incident Response Leadneeds it at depth · 1 open posting this week
- Senior AI Compliance Analystneeds working knowledge
- AI Compliance Specialistneeds working knowledge · 1 open posting this week
- AI Program Managerneeds it at depth · 11 open postings this week
How job descriptions say it
Postings rarely use the textbook word. These are the phrases the careers map reads as asking for the competencies above.
Where the frameworks place it: EU AI Act Articles 11 and 12; ISO/IEC 42001 Clause 7.5; Global Internal Audit Standards; ISO/IEC 42001 Clause 9.2.
One interview question about it
What evidence would you have ready before an auditor asks about an AI system, and how do you produce it as a byproduct of the work?
Asked of candidates for evidence collection and audit-ready documentation. Answering it in your own words is exactly how a GAGE topic is passed, and the credential records the pass where an employer can check it.
If you come from another field
Some backgrounds already carry this competency, and the readiness check gives credit for it.
- Compliance and regulatory affairs carries it as work you can show: Audit-ready documentation is what you produce.
- Internal audit and IT audit carries it as work you can show: Evidence evaluation is the profession.
- Project and program management carries it as a claim to back up: Decision logs and repositories are familiar.
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.