Quantum Basics
What Is Quantum Computing? A Primer for Non-Physicists
Published 02 June 2026 · 6 min read · LLM Advocates Quantum Practice
Every technology eventually needs a legal vocabulary, and quantum computing has arrived at that point faster than most. Boards are asking general counsel whether their encryption is safe. Regulators are drafting rules for a technology most of their staff cannot describe. Before any of that can be done well, it helps to understand — in plain terms, without the physics degree — what a quantum computer actually is and what it is not.
A different kind of machine, not just a faster one
A classical computer, from a pocket calculator to a hyperscale data centre, processes information as bits: switches that are either 0 or 1. Every calculation, no matter how sophisticated, is ultimately a very long sequence of those binary choices. A quantum computer processes information using qubits, which can exist in a combination of 0 and 1 at the same time — a property called superposition — and can be linked together through entanglement so that the state of one qubit is correlated with another, even when physically separated.
This is not simply 'faster.' For most everyday tasks — sending an email, running a spreadsheet, streaming a film — a quantum computer offers no advantage at all, and may well be worse. Its value lies in a narrow but consequential set of problems: simulating molecules and materials, optimising complex logistics, and — critically for this firm's clients — breaking or securing certain forms of mathematical encryption.
Why the legal community should care now, not later
Quantum computers capable of breaking today's public-key encryption at scale do not yet exist commercially. But two things make this a present legal issue rather than a future one. First, data encrypted today can be harvested and stored now, to be decrypted later once the capability matures — a strategy regulators increasingly call 'harvest now, decrypt later.' Second, migrating any large organisation to quantum-resistant systems takes years, not months, which means the compliance clock has effectively already started.
For a general counsel, the practical takeaway is this: you do not need to understand the physics of superconducting qubits to ask the right questions of your CTO, your vendors and your regulators. You need to understand what quantum computers can and cannot yet do, where your organisation's exposure sits, and which regulatory timelines — in India and abroad — now apply to you.