Cyber risks to companies and their customers and employees have reached unprecedented new levels.

A recent survey conducted by the LFMC of the IBA shows that while 84% of firms have a strategy, there is less satisfaction in terms of its uniqueness, ableness in a partnership to articulate the firm's strategy and follow up in terms of implementation. This session will discuss how a firm can improve it success in implementing its strategy. How is a strategy effectively communicated? How to set goals and measure progress? How should we organise ourselves to ensure better implementation? Are your incentives and performance reviews aligned to the strategy?

This session will look at those vulnerabilities, and we will deal with a common misconception that trusts are only relevant to common law jurisdictions.

The rise in the frequency of online cross-border legal services, already in evidence before the pandemic but doubtless increased by home working and travel restrictions during the pandemic, poses challenging questions about whether bars’ existing regulation of foreign lawyers, often based on their physical presence, needs to be reconsidered in the light of digital advances.

Influenced by the recommendations of the IMF, the World Bank and other similar institutions, lawmakers are progressively introducing various types of restructuring schemes aimed at assisting distressed businesses to restructure their assets and liabilities in order to restore long-term economic viability and avoid bankruptcy. Concepts such as “best-of-creditors’ interest test” or “absolute/relative priority rule” are paramount to define each legal scheme and assess whether or not creditors’ expected recovery ratios should be enhanced following the introduction of the schemes, the scope of protection offered to secured or preferred creditors, the chances of hold-out creditors blocking the restructuring, etc.  The session intends to provide a roadmap to lawyers advising banks and other professional creditors on the intricacies of some model restructuring schemes.

The United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (New York, 2018) (the "Singapore Convention on Mediation") was adopted on 20 December 2018 and was open for signature on 7 August 2019. 55 states have signed the Convention with 9 states having ratified.

SustainabilityFocusHumanRightsThere has been significant coverage on how public companies are dealing with the increased focus on ESG and investor expectations and demands around ESG initiatives.

SustainabilityFocusHumanRightsHistorically, water has been allocated putting the highest priority on human uses - water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. Beginning in the 20th Century, environmental demands began to take precedence. The 21st Century brings changes in availability caused by climate change, increased awareness of environmental needs, and increases in human demand. The panel will discuss governance over water given the multiple pressures on this resource, considering climate change, economic development, environmental needs and human rights.

SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS sessions marked as such are part of the IBA Annual Conference 2022 sustainability focus on Tuesday and Thursday, grouping sessions discussing different aspects of ESG and sustainability across the different legal fields.

HumanRightsAs a legal mechanism, universal jurisdiction expands the possibilities for justice in areas where the International Criminal Court's involvement will likely remain limited due to legal, security, logistical, and political constraints. This panel explores the contours of universal jurisdiction and the practical implications of its use, using trials and investigations of crimes in multiple countries as case studies of its application.

The session will address this hot topic from several perspectives, including: the migration from the traditional to the digital media, challenges from an antitrust perspective, and many others related to the exploitation of sports rights. Also, it will address how sports events´ owners and producers are dealing with “active” fans who want to choose what, when and how to watch and how much the new players - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Tik Tok, Kwai and other digital media – are willing to pay for sports content and how will their payback be.

We will cover the impact of emigration on their personal assets as well as the effect on their various entities: from LLCs and grantor trusts, to corporations and settlements.  As a counterbalance to the US angle, we will have panelists from key jurisdictions discussing how local laws and tax rules will affect the incoming US person.

The range of risks in major projects is broad and risk allocation is a key factor which will impact on the delivery of projects. This session will consider risk allocation in areas such as ground risk, unforeseen events (such as a pandemic), environmental issues and pricing risk. It will consider aspects such as; do fixed price contracts deliver certainty on price or do they inevitably lead to project failure?

Indeed in several areas the changes introduced have been regressive, limiting and jeopardizing access to justice and introducing impediments to the proper conduct of court proceedings.

This session will examine the benefits and drawbacks of the new ways conducting trails during the pandemic and try and assess their overall impact. Speakers will reflect a variety of different jurisdictions and perspectives

The discussion will evaluate the latest trends in aviation litigation emerged with regard to insurance issues, the matter of jurisdiction and the developments occurred with regard to major casualties, including the Boeing 737 Max litigation and the interpretation of preemption clauses.

Private equity, venture capital and M&A activity remained strong in Latin America throughout the pandemic, but some economic sectors received significantly more investments than others, namely digital and online technology companies. On the post-pandemic environment, we expect to see M&A activity on all fronts, including a continuation of investments in technology companies, a return of investments in sectors that were dormant, distressed M&A on sectors badly affected by the crisis and post-IPO consolidation of various sectors. A panel of private equity firms, venture capitalists, private equity lawyers and investment bankers will discuss the challenges and opportunities that these type of investments bring, the hottest sectors, trends, similitudes and differences from pre-Covid PE and VC investments, how to navigate perceived increased political risk, among other topics.

Most installation vessels are foreign flagged and how are the players of the industry dealing with this?

A solid working relationship between in-house counsel and law firms can be a crucial element for a company’s long-term success.

RuleOfLawThis panel will focus on the role of international law in modern conflict generally and the Ukraine crisis specifically. Panellists will discuss war crimes enforcement/accountability, de-escalation/conflict resolution, the role of sanctions and the role of private business. As it concerns the Ukraine crisis, panellists will consider whether or not the rule of law exists in conflicts involving superpowers and what can be done, through the enforcement of international norms and instruments, to restore the international rule of law in Ukraine.

Legal workspaces are evolving, combining physical office spaces, ‘work anywhere’ and better technology to knit the two together.

Most kinds of knowledge businesses (not only law firms) are fundamentally rethinking how work is done.

RuleOfLawPlease join us as we confer the IBA Rule of Law Forum and LexisNexis Lifetime Achievement Award to one of the most important legal figures of our century, Benjamin Ferencz.