Edmund Smyth

Kingsley Napley, London 

The Criminal Law, Business Crime, Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery Committees reconvened in person at the IBA’s annual set-piece event in an unseasonably warm Toronto between 2 and 7 November 2025. The conference itself was attended by over 5000 delegates and was held in the cavernous Metro Toronto Convention Centre, in the shadow of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, who were beaten by the narrowest of margins in the deciding game of the World Series on the night of my arrival in the city).

The Toronto city skyline, Canada, 2 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

Once recovered from the tension of the night before, Sunday saw many of the committees’ officers take a memorable trip to Niagara Falls, before the opening ceremony and welcome party in the evening. Much reuniting with old friends and making of new ones took place between mouthfuls of poutine and dodging axe-wielding lumberjacks on stilts, with a backing track of country, Celtic and indigenous music.

The meat of the conference, the panels, kicked off on the Monday with a typically international flavour, focussing on ‘the far-reaching impact of INTERPOL red notices: strategies and solutions for immigration, arbitration, mining and investment disputes, and white-collar/business crime’. The workings of the International Criminal Police Organisation or INTERPOL - which impact a broad array of legal matters and clients - are too often a mystery. This panel provided much needed guidance on the organisation, structure, and functioning of INTERPOL, and how lawyers can best advocate for victims of the abuse (typically by state actors) of INTERPOL’s processes.

The moderator was Anne O’Donoghue (Immigration Solutions Lawyers, Sydney, New South Wales; Vice-Chair for Diversity and Inclusion for the IBA Global Employment Institute (GEI)), who expertly handled the panel that comprised of Riyaz Dattu (ArentFox Schiff, New York), Sandra Grossman (Grossman Young & Hammond, Maryland), Kateryna Gupalo (Arzinger, Kyiv; Co-Chair of the IBA Business Crime Committee), Ben Keith (Five St Andrew’s Hill, London) and Charlie Magri (Otherside, Marseille).

Next, a Business Crime Committee panel delved into the murky world of misconduct against corporates, such as external/cyberattacks, data theft by employees or industrial espionage under the heading of ‘Criminal threats to corporate know-how’.

Chaired by Kateryna Gupalo and Riccardo Lucev (Studio Lucev, Milan; Vice-Chair of the IBA Criminal Law Committee), the speakers were Shaul Brazil (BCL Solicitors, London; Vice-Chair of the IBA Criminal Law Committee), Pedro Ivo Gricoli Iokoi (Iokoi Advogados, São Paulo; Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the IBA Business Crime Committee), Chris Jordan (Davies Collison Cave, Melbourne; Member of the IBA Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Committee Advisory Board), Vaijayanti Sharma (MZM Legal, Mumbai; a Young Lawyers’ Committee Liaison Officer for the IBA Criminal Law Committee) and Wendy J Wagner (Gowling WLG Canada, Ottawa).

Panellists of the session titled ‘Criminal threats to corporate know-how’, Toronto, Canada, 3 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

Monday night involved an array of networking events and parties that took place across the city, from art galleries to glitzy bars, and from the Royal Ontario Museum to the top of the CN Tower.

The traditional mock trial took place on Tuesday morning, with the theme ‘Green lies: ESG corruption on trial’. Attendees were treated to a showcase of practitioners’ thespian skills, exercised using a case study of a corruption case involving individual and corporate defendants from both the public and private sectors. Huge thanks go to the organisers and to those who participated:

Tara A Archer-Glasgow (Higgs & Johnson, Nassau), Diana Czugler (Peters & Peters, London), Stéphane Eljarrat (Osler Hoskin & Harcourt, Toronto; Internal Investigations Officer of the IBA Compliance Subcommittee), Lorna Emson (Macfarlanes, London), Filippo Ferri (Cagnola & Associati Studio Legale, Milan; Co-Chair, Business Crime Committee), Marc Hassberger (Chabrier Avocats, Geneva), Frederick Hui (Zhong Lun, Hong Kong), Francesco Isolabella della Croce (Studio Legale Associato Isolabella, Milan), Justinas Jarusevičius (Motieka & Audzevičius, Vilnius), Ben Keith, Łukasz Lasek (Wardyński & Partners, Warsaw), Jeffrey A Lehtman (Miller & Chevalier, Washington DC), Mark Fredrick Mendelsohn (Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Washington DC), Manavendra Mishra (Khaitan & Co, Mumbai), James Newland (Dentons, Washington DC), Felix Ka-ho Ng (Haldanes, Hong Kong), Keith Oliver (Peters & Peters, London), Roberto Pisano (PisanoLaw, Milan), Oliver Pragal (Pragal & Prinzenberg, Hamburg), Helena Prieto González (J&A Garrigues, Madrid), Willemieke Princée (OX & WOLF, Curacao), Chitra Rentala (Trilegal, Mumbai), The Honourable Marshall Rothstein (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Vancouver), Mirjam Hannah Steinfeld (Rosinus Partner, Frankfurt), Sabine Ten Doesschate (Sjöcrona van Stigt, Rotterdam; Co-Chair of the IBA Criminal Law Committee), León Vidaller Segura (Garrigues, Madrid), Robert Wyld (Johnson Winter Slattery, Sydney) and Leanne Yanli Zheng (JunHe, Beijing).

Participants in a mock trial under the theme of ‘Green lies: ESG corruption on trial’, Toronto, Canada, 4 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

Sticking with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) theme, the afternoon’s panel (‘ESG and criminal enforcement’) explored how, across the world, corporations are facing the criminal implications of erroneous ESG policies, such as those involving greenwashing, false ‘environmental’ balance sheets and consumer fraud, etc, where and how these issues amount to criminal offences and what every criminal lawyer should know in order to best advise their clients on such matters. The session Co-Chairs were Ross Dixon (Hickman & Rose, London; Senior Vice Chair of the IBA Criminal Law Committee) and Filippo Ferri and the panellists were Lorna Emson, Antonin Lévy (Paul Hastings, Paris), Lauren Tomasich (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Toronto) and Mauro M Wolfe (Duane Morris, New York).

The host committee reception was held on Tuesday evening in the refined surroundings of Roy Thomson Hall, home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And for those who felt the need to let their hair down afterwards, there followed several excellent parties, hosted by various law firms, in some of Toronto’s most happening club venues.

Despite Tuesday night’s (and early Wednesday morning’s…) exertions, there was an impressive turnout for the first panel of Wednesday morning, ‘Cybercrime and global efforts to fight it’.

Attendees at the panel ‘ESG and criminal enforcement’, Toronto, Canada, 4 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

George Pyromallis (George Pyromallis Law Office, Athens; European Regional Forum Liaison Officer for the IBA Criminal Law Committee) was the Chair, ably supported by the panel, which comprised of Jason Linder (Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Los Angeles), Andrea Puccio (Puccio Penalisti Associati, Milan; Law Firm Management Committee Liaison Officer for the IBA Criminal Law Committee), Manavendra Mishra (Khaitan & Co, Mumbai; Asia Pacific Regional Forum Liaison Officer for the IBA Business Crime Committee) and Stefanie Schott (Kipper Durth Schott, Darmstadt; Senior Vice Chair of the IBA Criminal Law Committee).

Panellists of the session titled ‘ESG and criminal enforcement’, Toronto, Canada, 4 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

In the afternoon, discussion and analysis turned to the issue of ‘De-banking, de-risking and available tools to challenge such decisions’. As many practitioners will be aware, during the last two decades the banking and financial industry has become increasingly risk averse and has adopted ever more thorough processes to terminate relationships with clients who are no longer deemed desirable. As well as taking us through examples of such developments, the experts discussed what tools are available to challenge and reverse these decisions.

Diana Czugler and Anke Feenstra (Hertoghs Advocaten, Breda; Treasurer of the IBA Criminal Law Committee) moderated a panel that comprised of Stephane Eljarrat, Gary Hughes (Britomart Chambers, Auckland; Co-Chair of the IBA Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Expert Subcommittee), Victoria Judd (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, London; Chair of the IBA Structured Finance Subcommittee), Paddy Oliver (AML Experts, Melbourne; Vice Chair of the IBA Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Expert Subcommittee) and Carla Reyes (Des Gouttes & Associés, Geneva; Committee Liaison Officer of the IBA Asset Recovery Committee).

Panellists presenting the session titled ‘De-banking, de-risking and available tools to challenge such decisions’, Toronto, Canada, 4 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

Wednesday’s conference centre programme concluded with a well-attended open business meeting of the IBA Business Crime Committee and Criminal Law Committee, before a wonderful joint dinner held by the Committees on Anti-Corruption, Business Crime and Criminal Law.

The esteemed Co-Chairs of the IBA Criminal Law and Business Crime Committees, Toronto, Canada, 4 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

The final criminal law section panel was held on Thursday morning; a highly informative and entertaining look at ‘Investigative journalism, whistleblowers and criminal law’. While investigative journalists have often been instrumental in exposing cases of serious corruption, there are also many instances where this has not been the case. When individuals or businesses take action to protect their reputation from journalistic accusations, they are often accused of trying to ‘silence’ the media. Is this a fair situation? Is the law positioned to, or capable of, adequately addressing these issues? Alternatively, does the law inhibit an open and free press, and is the impact of investigative journalism overstated?

Co-moderators Alex Swan (Greenberg Traurig, London; Membership Officer for the IBA Business Crime Committee) and Sabine Ten Doesschate deftly managed an excellently informed panel that comprised of Matt Kaiser (Kaiser, Washington DC; Co-Chair of the Criminal Law Committee), Salamander Davoudi (Tancredi, London) and Andrew George (Doogue + George Defence Lawyers, Melbourne; Individual Defence Counsel Officer for the IBA Criminal Law Committee).

Panellists presenting the session titled ‘Investigative journalism, whistleblowers and criminal law’ Toronto, Canada, 5 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

All in all, it was an excellent conference; plenty of thought-provoking and informative content, combined with the very best opportunities to network and – just as important – to cement relationships with fellow IBA members in a variety of settings. As well as the aforementioned excursion to Niagara Falls, interspersed with numerous wonderful meals, committee members enjoyed ice hockey, took boat trips across the Inner Harbour, visited art galleries and went wild at the unmissable Law Rocks concert.

Attendees at an evening meal, Toronto, Canada, 5 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

Attendees at Niagara Falls, United States, 2 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.

The Toronto city skyline, Toronto, Canada, 2 November 2025. Courtesy of Edmund Smyth.