Lawyers as gatekeepers: professional responsibility and access to justice in a challenging world – session one

Jonathan Soeharno (Of Counsel at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek) is a noted expert on ethics and integrity. He advises and litigates on behalf of corporates, financial institutions, public organisations and professional service firms on integrity, ESG, human rights, disciplinary and governance matters. He has specific expertise on the bankers oath and disciplinary rules in the financial sector. He is the author of The Integrity of the Judge (2009), The Value of the Oath (2020) and Logic for Lawyers (2021), and is regularly invited to speak at national and international conferences. He also formed part of the Committee that revised the Dutch Code of Conduct for Lawyers in 2018. Additional positions - Full Professor of administration of justice and legal philosophy, University of Amsterdam - Deputy judge, Den Bosch Court of Appeal (Commerce Chamber) - Former senator, Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal - Member of the Disciplinary Court of Appeal for Lawyers - Ethics lecturer, Dutch national training institute for judges and public prosecutors

Steven M. Richman holds a law degree from New York University School of Law and is a member of Clark Hill PLC, based in Princeton and New York, with a national and international litigation across broad areas of commercial and business practice, as well as arbitration and appellate practice. He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California. Book publications include the Photography Law Handbook, and has written and spoken extensively in the areas of international law, business and human rights, contracts, litigation and arbitration, and professional responsibility. He is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s International Law Section, serves in the ABA House of Delegates, and is the ABA Representative to the United Nations. He is the Chair of the International Bar Association’s Bar Issues Commission and chairs the Business and Human Rights Commission of the UIA (International Association of Lawyers). He also serves on the New York City Bar Association Business and Human Rights Committee and its international council. He has extensive cross border dispute resolution experience in both litigation and arbitration. He serves as a neutral on the American Arbitration Association consumer panel, and is on the mediation list for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He is also on the Lawyers Advisory Committee for the federal court in New Jersey. He has served as an American Bar Association advisor to the Uniform Law Commission on asset freezing orders as well as on the Hague Judgments Convention, Singapore Mediation Convention, and the Choice of Courts Agreements Convention. He has spoken and written extensively on cross border ethics, arbitration, enforcement of judgments and interim relief issues. Publications in the area of business and human rights include Ethical Issues for Business Lawyers Under the United Nations Guiding Principles, 51 Int'l Law. 423 (2018) and the chapter titled Lawyers’ Ethical Obligations and Human Rights Due Diligence in the book A Guide to Human Rights Due Diligence for Lawyers (ABA 2023). He is the ABA Representative to the Uniform Law Commission Supply Chain Transparency Study Committee, and past member of ABA Center for Human Rights Advisory Council, and a special advisor to the ABA Rule of Law Initiative board. He is a recipient of the American Bar Association’s International Law Section Leonard J. Theberge Award for Private International Law (2022) as well as the Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2023). Contract information: Steven M. Richman Clark Hill PLC Suite 102 210 Carnegie Center Princeton, NJ 08540 609.785.2911 srichman@clarkhill.com

Claudio Visco is the President of the IBA for 2026. He has been a member of the IBA for over 30 years and represented the Rome Bar Association on the IBA Council. He sits on the IBA Management Board and had previously held the roles of: Presidente elect (2025), Vice President jointly with Jaime Carey (2023-2024), Secretary General (2021-2022); Member, IBA Diversity & Inclusion Council (2019-2021); Officer, Vice Chair and then Chair, Bar Issues Commission (2007-2018); Vice Chair and then Co-Chair, Capital Markets Forum (2005-2007); Chair, Securities Committee (2003-2004). He organized several International Financial Law Conferences jointly with the Banking Committee and the Bar Leaders Conferences of Belfast 2017 and Oslo 2018. He significantly contributed to draft important IBA’s guidelines and policy recommendations such as the Practical Guide on Business and Human Rights for Business Lawyers, the IBA Business and Human Rights Guidance for Bar Association and the Joint IBA-OECD report on the Role of Lawyer. He chaired the Host Committee for the very successful Rome IBA Annual Conference in 2018. He is currently Senior Partner at Lipani Legal&Tax, after having spent 30 years as Managing Partner of Macchi di Cellere Gangemi international law firm. He was involved since the Nineties in the liberalisation of the Energy sector in Italy, representing Italian and foreign utilities in developing and financing combined cycle power plants and waste-to-energy plants. In the last twenty years, he concentrated on renewable energies acting as counsel in connection with development of new wind and photovoltaic initiatives, negotiating IPC and O&M contracts and financing energy projects, particularly as sponsor’s counsel. His areas of practice also include financial and corporate matters with particular emphasis on commercial and regulatory litigation, including white collar crimes and arbitration. He holds an extensive experience in international litigation and arbitration cases. He acts as certified auditor (Sindaco) and member of the Supervisory Board (Organismo di Vigilanza) in many companies belonging to multinational groups. He graduated with a Law Degree at University of Rome La Sapienza, magna cum laude, in 1981. He attended the School of Public Administration in Rome (1981-1982); he followed an introductory course to American Law at the Georgetown University Law School, Washington (1982). Master of Laws (LL.M.) at the University of Michigan Law School in 1983. He maintains close relationships with the Rome and Milan Bars e and with Consiglio Nazionale Forense, the Italian Federation of Bar Associations.

Director Legal Projects IBA