Lawyer independence under pressure: authoritarian challenges in history and contemporary practice

Prof. Dr. Birgit Spiesshofer M.C.J. (New York Univ.) is attorney at law and Of Counsel (from April 2021-March 2024 Europe Chief Sustainability and Governance Counsel) at Dentons in Berlin and professor at the University of Bremen. She advises, researches, publishes and teaches in the field of international business law, business and legal ethics, compliance, sustainability, international environmental law, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environment, Social, Governance). She habilitated at the University of Bremen in 2018 with the foundational work "Responsible Enterprise. The emergence of a global economic order". She is founding Chair of the Compliance and CSR Committee of the German Lawyers Association and was i.a. Chair of the European Environmental Committee of the IBA and Chair of the CSR Committees of the IBA and the CCBE (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe). She is a member of the Human Rights Advisory Council of BASF SE. From 1995 to 2010, she was a partner at Hengeler Mueller, including four years as a member of the Executive Board.

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

Barrister-at-law (Hong Kong, England & Wales), PhD (HKU), LLB (LSE), MCIArb, CEDR Accredited Mediator. General Editor, Hong Kong Cases. Publications include: The Hong Kong Basic Law (LexisNexis), The Judicial Construction of Hong Kong's Basic Law (HKU Press), The Hong Kong District Court Practice (4th Ed) (LexisNexis).