Conference programme

The CJEU's 2022 London Steam-Ship decision exposed a critical gap in the Brussels I Recast Regulation: whilst judgments confirming arbitral awards can prevent recognition of irreconcilable judgments from other Member States, the absence of a lis pendens rule regarding arbitration proceedings creates significant risks of conflicting decisions and undermines legal certainty. The European Commission's 2025 report on the application of the Brussels I Recast Regulation acknowledges such irreconcilability risks and seeks to eliminate it. Against this backdrop, the Sorbonne Research Project has proposed a concrete solution. This panel will explore the diverging approaches across EU jurisdictions to this coordination challenge, examine the practical implications of the London Steam-Ship ruling and critically assess whether the Sorbonne proposal strikes the right balance between party autonomy, judicial efficiency and the fundamental principle of mutual trust underpinning EU civil procedure.

As global energy generation accelerates, particularly with the rise of renewables, transmission and distribution networks are under unprecedented strain. With rolling blackouts, pipeline risks, and capacity constraints, how are new regulatory requirements for sustaining and securing networks affecting projects? How are we responding to the disruption in contracting and dispute resolution? This panel will explore the full spectrum of disputes arising across the energy infrastructure chain, from capacity allocation and connection delays to liability for outages, interruptions, and regulatory non-compliance.

It will also consider the challenges of integrating new technologies, meeting decarbonisation targets, and balancing the interests of states, regulators, investors, operators, and consumers. By bringing together diverse perspectives, the discussion aims to highlight how legal practitioners can help manage risk proactively, design more resilient contractual frameworks, and resolve disputes efficiently in an evolving energy landscape.

This session will provide a global round-up of the hottest topics in asset management, covering emerging trends, regulatory developments, and market challenges. Participants will gain insights into key issues shaping investment strategies, risk management, and compliance across major jurisdictions.

This session will assess competitiveness, regulation, and the evolving balance between stability and innovation.

This panel will explore how private equity players navigate exit strategies when portfolio companies face financial distress or adverse market conditions. Discussion topics will include assessing turnaround versus exit decisions, restructuring options, and the role of debt holders and other stakeholders in shaping outcomes. Panelists will examine tools such as secondary sales, distressed M&A, recapitalisations, and insolvency proceedings, as well as legal and regulatory considerations across jurisdictions. The conversation will also address valuation challenges, timing of exits in volatile markets, and lessons learned from recent distressed situations, offering practical insights for investors managing downside risk.

Following the launch of the Global Guide for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Legal Workplaces, this panel explores how legal workplaces around the world are putting the Guide into action. The session will focus on practical implementation, work redesign and real-world impact, offering firm leaders a roadmap to foster psychological health and safety and high-performing teams.
 
Attendees will hear from leading voices in law and organisational psychology, discussing how work practices can be redesigned to reduce psychosocial risks, support employee wellbeing and strengthen organisational resilience. The panel will highlight innovative approaches, lessons learned and best-practice examples from early adopters, helping leaders translate the Guide into tangible improvements in their own organisations.
 
This session is designed for firm leaders, in-house counsel, and policy makers who want to drive sustainable change, create mentally healthy workplaces, and demonstrate leadership in embedding evidence-based wellbeing practices across the profession.

In this annual panel, speakers will explore third country removals of refugees and their implications for individual human rights and international law standards. Experts will share their strategies under national and international law and explore trends across the world.

Sports arbitration has long been regarded as a fast, specialised, and effective means of resolving disputes in an increasingly globalised sporting world. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) remains the cornerstone of this system, exercising jurisdiction over a broad spectrum of matters, from disciplinary sanctions and doping cases to commercial and contractual disputes.

Recent jurisprudence, however, has reignited debate about the limits and legitimacy of this model. In particular, the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in Semenya v. Switzerland (Application no. 10934/21, 10 July 2025) and the Court of Justice of the European Union’s ruling in Royal Football Club Seraing and Others v. FIFA (Case C-600/23, 1 August 2025) raise fundamental questions about the balance between arbitral autonomy and mandatory public law principles.

To what extent should arbitration in sport be constrained by considerations of human rights, competition law, and public policy (ordre public)? Are existing mechanisms adequate to safeguard fairness and independence, or is reform required to maintain legitimacy and trust?

This session will examine whether the CAS model remains fit for purpose in light of these developments and will explore their broader implications for arbitration beyond sport, including commercial arbitration and other forms of private dispute resolution.

This session will explore the challenges that rightsholders may face in seeking remediation for business-related human rights harm, including power asymmetries, lack of meaningful participation, exclusion of context-sensitive approaches, limited community trust in companies, and limited enforcement of decisions through judicial, quasi-judicial and non-judicial processes. It will also explore how businesses seeking to comply with or apply international BHR laws and standards can work to mitigate some of these barriers, including how to reasonably defend against actions in line with these standards.

The session will delve into the role of lawyers, both in-house and external, in supporting businesses to take this type of approach, as well as the role of plaintiff lawyers in strategic litigation to help break down barriers and contribute to all parties acting in good faith in these types of proceedings.

The paradigm for water management has fundamentally shifted. Once considered a limitless utility, reliable water access is now one of the most critical vulnerabilities for both public and private enterprises in the face of persistent drought, climate volatility and population growth.

For sanitation companies and water utilities, the 'dry tap' scenario — the point at which supply can no longer meet demand — has moved from a hypothetical worst case to a foreseeable business reality.

In this new reality, water recycling and reuse are no longer innovative options; they are essential components of climate adaptation and business continuity.

This session confronts the profound legal exposure for directors and officers who fail to act. We will explore how the decision to delay, defer, or reject capital investment in proven water reuse technologies is being reframed as a critical failure of oversight and a direct breach of fiduciary duty.

When a utility fails, or a corporation's operations halt due to a predictable water shortage, stakeholders — from investors to regulators to the public — will not ask if the board knew about water recycling, but why they failed to implement it.

The rapid diffusion of digital health - particularly connected medical devices - is reshaping global supply chains end to end. Manufacturers must navigate fragmented regulatory regimes on cybersecurity, software updates and post-market surveillance, driving region-specific design, documentation and distribution strategies. This session is proudly led by the Digital Healthcare and Regulation Subcommittee of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Law Committee.

Professional networks are a cornerstone of success in the legal world. This panel will examine how women can build and leverage local and international networks for visibility, mentorship and business development, and will share practical insights and success stories.

This roundtable session will focus on five distinct emerging topics of interest to the audience. The session will feature an interactive roundtable format led by moderators, with contributions from our national reporters.

This session will look at disputes arising out of the development and integration of AI technology into other products and services, and where issues of liability may involve multiple parties in the AI supply chain all the way to the end-user. What are the advantages and limitations of arbitrating versus litigating these disputes?

If you can see it, you can be it: leadership and role modelling. 

Lawyers often believe happiness comes after success – but neuroscience and human experience show that happiness is actually what makes success possible. In a profession that quietly struggles with stress, pressure, burnout and emotional overload, this session will explore happiness as a professional practice, not a distant reward. We will look at what happiness does in the body – the physiology, the micro-rituals, the state shifts that increase clarity, creativity, presence and emotional grounding in minutes. And we will examine how redefining happiness transforms the way we work, collaborate and lead in law. Happiness is not a luxury nor a distraction, and when lawyers practice it intentionally, the profession itself transforms from the inside out.

A case study session on ethical regulations.

This panel will examine the global phenomenon of the deliberate use of trade measures—tariffs, non-tariff barriers, sanctions, export controls, and other instruments, not as neutral regulatory tools but as instruments of geopolitical power. The US has been at the forefront of this trend, invoking national security to justify broad tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and several other statutes.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year in Learning Resources v. Trump clarified that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs, curbing executive overreach. This decision triggered refund obligations, creating a nationwide compliance and financial impact for importers, and flow on wave of new/surrogate trade weapons in replacement. For its part, the US insisted on reincarnating its tariff wall using alternative methods.
This has triggered a variety of responses from other countries, ranging from signing bilateral trade deals to engaging in counter-retaliation.

The panel will consider:
• How do we distinguish legitimate trade regulation from the weaponisation of trade?; 
• What are the legal boundaries – both domestically and internationally?;
• Practical consequences and responses for companies;
• International responses, including implications for FTAs and the WTO;
• Consequences for the Sino-American Trade War; and
• Systemic implications for International Trade Law and Policy

As regulatory reviews increase uncertainty and the potential duration between the signing and closing of M&A deals, this panel will explore practical strategies for both target companies and buyers to optimise deal timelines while effectively managing the interim period. Counsel from jurisdictions around the world will compare strategies for addressing these risks, including a discussion of key, and often unique, contract provisions that can enable attorneys to assist their clients in managing the interim period and mitigating risks to deal counterparties during the pendency of an M&A deal.