The HR Leader's Guide to AI Governance, Talent Risk, and the EU AI Act

Your AI Is
Making Decisions.
Do You Know
What It's Deciding?

The first AI governance guide written for HR leaders. Built around the lawsuit that changed everything — and the system that ensures your organization never finds itself in the same position.

Available August 2026 on Amazon  ·  Join the waiting list to be notified the moment pre-order opens.

When AI Breaks the Law — book cover by Margaret Spence, published by DCRC Training Group Press
The Wake-Up Call

The Mobley Case Changed Everything for HR

When Derek Mobley filed a $365 million lawsuit against Workday, it exposed a truth most HR leaders weren't ready for: your AI vendor's bias is your legal liability.

$365M
Lawsuit against Workday

Derek Mobley v. Workday — the case that changed everything

1.1B+
Applications screened by AI

Algorithmic gatekeepers deciding who gets hired — and who doesn't

73%
Of companies unprepared

Most HR teams lack governance frameworks for AI compliance

FREE ASSESSMENT TOOL

Are You Ready for AI Governance?

8 questions. 2 minutes. Know exactly where your organization stands on the AI Fluency Maturity Matrix — and what gap could cost you millions.

Question 1 of 8 AI Fluency

Your Result

You are:

Your Profile

Your Development Path

AI Fluency
Governance Capability

The Framework

The SimpliFocus 5-Step System

A practical, proven framework for HR leaders to build AI governance from the ground up — mapped to EU AI Act compliance requirements.

Scan
Audit every AI system in your hiring pipeline.
Investigate
Understand how each system makes decisions.
Mitigate
Implement controls and bias testing.
Protect
Build documentation and compliance frameworks.
Lead
Establish ongoing governance and monitoring.
What You'll Learn

18 Chapters. One System.
Built for the Stakes You're Already Carrying.

01

The Legal Landscape

The Mobley case. EU AI Act exposure. Why the law arrived before the governance did — and what that means for your organization right now.

Chapters 1–4
02

Understanding AI Failure

How rational decisions stack into discriminatory outcomes. The AI Failure Web Analysis™ — so you can see the pattern before it becomes a lawsuit.

Chapters 5–8
03

Building Governance

The 12-step SimpliFocus™ System. Vendor contracts. The TRACE™ verification workflow. A governance practice you own — not one your vendor controls.

Chapters 9–14
04

Leading the Future

The CPIO identity. The operating cadence that makes governance continuous. What strategic AI leadership looks like for HR leaders who have done the work.

Chapters 15–18
18 Chapters
5 Proprietary Frameworks
17 Microlessons
1 Complete Operating System
Who This Is For

Built for the Leader Who Gets the Call When Something Goes Wrong

If AI touches your workforce decisions, this book is your accountability map.

CHROs & HR Vice Presidents

You sign the vendor contracts. You answer to the board when something breaks. This book makes you the person in the room who already built the governance.

Talent Acquisition Leaders

Every AI screening tool in your pipeline is a potential lawsuit. Learn to audit, verify, and govern the systems that already run your candidate decisions.

Employment Lawyers & General Counsel

Mobley v. Workday changed deployer liability. Understand the regulatory landscape your HR clients are operating in — and the gaps they don't see yet.

Culture & Change Leaders

AI governance is a change management problem as much as a compliance problem. This book gives you the language to build the internal shift your organization needs.

HR Technology Leaders

You selected the system. Now you need the governance architecture to manage it responsibly — vendor contracts, deployment gates, and the verification workflow.

Talent Development Leaders

Your people need AI fluency. This book gives you the framework to build it — not as a training event, but as a workforce competency your organization can measure.

Margaret Spence — Author and AI Governance Strategist

Margaret Spence — Author, Risk Strategist

About the Author

Written by a Risk Manager. Built for HR Leaders.

Margaret Spence spent 40 years at the intersection of talent, equity, and organizational risk. She managed more than $495 million in workplace litigation for Fortune 500 companies. She has been in boardrooms after lawsuits. She has reviewed discovery documents at 2 AM.

She did not write this book as a technology expert. She wrote it as a human expert. Someone who recognized the Mobley failure pattern before it had a name, because she had spent four decades watching organizations create predictable disasters and then be surprised by them.

When AI Breaks the Law is her fourth book. It is the only AI governance guide written specifically for HR leaders.

"AI may disrupt work. But it is up to us, the Humans in Human Resources, to protect what work is supposed to mean."

40+ Years Talent & Risk Leadership
$495M Workplace Litigation Managed
4 Books Published

Trusted by HR Leaders Who Cannot Afford to Wait

Margaret has brought this governance framework to conference stages across the country. The book puts that system in your hands.

SXSW 2026
SXSW 2025
ATD 2026 — Association for Talent Development
American Property Casualty Insurance Association
HumanShip
Core4 2024

Your AI Systems Are Running Right Now. The Question Is Whether You Are Governing Them.

Join the waiting list to be notified the moment pre-order opens on Amazon.

Join the Book Waiting List

Available August 2026 on Amazon.

Published by DCRC Training Group Press