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IBA 2020 Virtually Together - A conversation with...John B Bellinger III
This workshop will explore the impact of global macro-economic trends and geopolitical situation on (i) market access, (ii) product design and (iii) fundraising in traditional and alternative structuring jurisdictions. This workshop will also cover the regulatory trends and challenges to overcome with respect to utilising offshore financial centres.
21st Annual International Conference on Private Investment Funds
Session Co-Chair
The New Era of Taxation
It is not uncommon for the Article 13(1)(b) exception, namely the ‘grave risk’ exception, to be used as a defence to object to the return of a child in 1980 Hague proceedings. While highly fact-specific, most common assertions relate to grave risk resulting from domestic violence or regional conflict.
In the last years, we have seen several Latin American companies filing for Chapter 11 in United States instead of filing for reorganization in their own countries and then seeking protection in the US under Chapter 15. This panel will address the reasons for such trends, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of each of such strategies (Chapter 11 vs. Chapter 15), as well as on cultural matters.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on 4 March 2020 that it has voted to propose a set of amendments that would clarify and harmonise integration concepts for several forms of exempt offerings. One amendment proposes to shorten the safe harbor in Regulation D to 30 days, which will provide more flexibility for small business and real estate securities offerings. This article summarises the integration of sequential Rule 506(b) and Rule 506(c) offerings.
This session will discuss:
- What are the future expectations of ESG factors within the companies?
- Does the social object of a traditional company will be understood as a real social purpose?
- Can profit financing tackle social and environmental gaps?
- What exactly a sustainable world of 2100 will require?
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
The 21st edition of the Monitor covers topics including a fire in Moria refugee camp forcing refugees ill with Covid-19 to flee and the growing crisis for worldwide refugee camps, the effect on low-income earners, including redundancies and homelessness and the difficulties for those living with disability in the reopening of schools.
The latest issue of the IBAHRI Covid-19 Human Rights Monitor contains updates on gender-based violence and women’s health in India and Northern Ireland. Also: refugee camps, including the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, which has no reported cases of Covid-19 to date.
ESG litigation – trends and strategies in both civil and common law court
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Global class actions - coming soon to a court near you
12:15PM – 1:30PM
Comparative approach of international commercial chambers
2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
The role of the profession, ethics, representation and social responsibility
4:15 PM - 5:30 PM
Spaces are limited and are assigned on a first come first served basis.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), in conjunction with the Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI), has written to Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemning the conviction of 11 members of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) Central Council on terrorism charges.
The same topics from session one will run again, please select another two topics to join.
<b>1. IP in the metaverse and beyondb>
<b>2. Going green – protecting and encouraging green technology innovation with IPb>
<b>3. New framework for transatlantic data transfersb>
<b>4. Navigating the dynamics of cyber risk landscape in M&A transactions and beyondb>
<b>5. Incentivising employees – retention following mergersb>
<b>6.
IBA 5th Silicon Beach Conference: From Start-Up to Exit
Jan 03, 2023
The Anti-Corruption Law was first regulated, at the federal level, by Decree No 8,420 of 18 March 2015. On 12 July 2022, more than seven years later, Federal Decree No 11,129 of 11 July 2022, which regulates Anti-Corruption Law and repeals Decree No. 8,420/2015, was published by the Brazilian government. This article provides a detailed overview of the new Decree.
The struggle to address the global access to justice and access to legal services crises continues, with the pandemic having taken its toll on those in need. Efforts to innovate and re-imagine the delivery of legal services have taken a new turn, one that includes permitting alternative business structures and professionals other than lawyers delivering legal services direct to consumers. In a growing number of jurisdictions, regulators and the organized bar have begun implementing limited, supervised testing of new methods of delivery via a policy tool called a regulatory sandbox. What is a sandbox and how does it work? Can it really increase access and do so in a way that preserves professional values and public protection? Experts directly involved with their implementation will tackle these and other questions.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Feb 17, 2023
Report on the session of the Insolvency Section of the Latin American Regional Forum at the IBA Annual Conference in Miami
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
A webinar presented by the IBA Insolvency Section, 8 September 2020, 1400-1500 BST
€120
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
This article is aimed at providing detailed information about the procedures and pertinent details of rehabilitation or Chapter 11 proceedings of Korea regarding shipping companies.
The issue of climate change is affecting all parts of Society and the delivery of legal services within this ever-changing world is a huge regulatory and ethical issue.
The panel will discuss 3 distinct areas in relation to the lawyer competence, lawyer discipline and ethical rules surrounding the delivery of legal services against a backdrop of “greenwashing”. The conflict between the client’s interest and a lawyer’s ethical obligations will be discussed.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Jun 27, 2022
Report on session at 6th IBA Global Entrepreneurship Conference, 16 – 17 May 2022, presented by the IBA Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprise Committee
HumanRightsRuleOfLawThe futurist Ray Kurzweil has forecasted that artificial intelligence may reach or exceed levels of human intelligence by 2029. It does not matter whether the timing of the prediction is accurate. What matters is how we deal with a technology that has the potential to outpace human development. Therefore, a forward-looking regulation is required in order to protect a humane society and human rights. Today, we can observe the rapid progression of self-driving cars or robots in healthcare. What we have not yet seen to the same degree is how human judgment is taken over by AI. If we want to preserve a human society where humans continue to make the final decisions, we need, however, to make sure that humans remain in control. These considerations hold particularly true for the areas of advocacy, justice, law enforcement, and public administration. While still in its early stages, digitization is also advancing in these sectors, which are central to the functioning of each democratic society. Stressing the importance of a human society is not denying the benefits of innovation and progress. For example, studies have shown that less than 50% of the population have access to the legal system in some jurisdictions. Technology – including AI-based instruments – can help broaden such access due to lower costs and easy access. Intelligent systems could for instance, be used to largely automate the submission of briefs and the issuing of court orders in civil proceedings. However, once AI-based technology is applied in the courtroom or in the decision-making process, fundamental legal rights could be seriously affected. While lawyers will adapt their working methods and use new technologies, they will continue to consider themselves as advocates of those who need them and as guardians of the rule of law as an overarching principle of freedom and democracy. This will not apply, on an algorithm, be it as intelligent as it may be. Bars should, therefore, actively participate in the regulation of AI being applied in the areas of advocacy. Acknowledging the increasing importance of AI in modern society, and the expected benefits when used at the service of the legal profession, key questions need to be discussed when drafting a new framework on AI.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Jun 12, 2024
The new Foreign State Immunity Law 2023 of the People’s Republic of China came into force on 1 January 2024. This shifts the country (as well as its special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau) away from absolute state immunity to restrictive state immunity, bringing it more in line with the relatively prevalent practice among the international community. This article discusses the status of state immunity in public international law, analyses the new law’s provisions and examines practical challenges that will be faced by those seeking to utilise this law to enforce judgments or awards against foreign states and state entities, and the new law’s innovations that go beyond the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property of 2004 and the UK State Immunity Act 1978.
The panel will explore the types of alleged wrongdoing on which multi-lateral banks are currently focusing, as well as the latest updates on their investigative methods and potential consequences, including suspension and debarment.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Feb 17, 2023
This article will outline the development of China’s restrictions on the cross-border transfer of personal information (PI export), detailing PI export mechanisms provided by the Personal Information Protection Law. It will also explain the practical implications of the restrictions.
The session will discuss the impact of international dispute resolution on the trade in legal services, highlighting the creation and growth in international commercial courts and regional arbitration centres, competing with each other to attract legal services to their region/jurisdiction, the interaction between local lawyers and foreign firms, and the role bars can play. The panel will bring a comparative perspective and draw on the experience of Singapore, Rwanda and India.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Sep 27, 2023
The rise in popularity of generative artificial intelligence (‘generative AI’) has ignited the discussion on whether junior employees can be replaced by it. Some have gone to the extent of questioning whether professionals, such as lawyers, can also be replaced by generative AI. Is it wise to replace junior employees or lawyers with generative AI? What factors should be considered before deploying generative AI tools in your business? To consider these questions, we first need to understand the basic workings of generative AI and what it can offer. Fundamentally, AI is intelligence that is not biological. The general understanding is that machines will be ascribed with this intelligence. These machines have the ability to interpret, learn from and process external data in a way that is similar to the capabilities of the human mind. Generative AI is a type of AI program that generates content from a data set. It uses deep learning, a type of machine learning system that behaves like a neural network to simulate the functions of a human brain. In other words, it can mimic human intelligence by exhibiting analytical skills to create new content. Not only can generative AI be utilised in chatbot programs to create text, but it can also be used in programs that can create images, sound or videos. This article will consider two major forms of generative AI, in the context of risks to businesses: chatbots using generative pre-trained transformer technology programs; and image generating programs.
The panel will analyse causes and consequences of recent banks and crypto-currency exchanges failures.
IBA Annual Conference Mexico City 2024
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.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Apr 22, 2022
This article discusses the recent SEC case involving PwC and highlights the wider implications for intermediary institutions providing professional services in a tightened regulatory and enforcement regime in China’s banking and financial sector.
This session will feature a roundtable discussion of experts who will recount on the most noticeable developments they have observed in 2023 affecting the legal profession. The panellists will represent different jurisdictions (from both civil law and common law) and give an insight on the current and evolving roles of lawyers in these jurisdictions. The discussion is expected to touch upon the impact technological advancement is having on how the legal profession is executed across various countries.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Jun 02, 2021
While the pandemic disruption has extended for far longer than initially expected, courts (after the first wave), arbitral institutions and stakeholders in commercial dispute resolution have largely continued operations, increasingly supported by innovative digital technology, flexible scheduling and flexible cost structures, among other tools.
The session will take stock of the developments made in cross-border legal practice up to now, reviewing the jurisdictions having opened their legal services market to the practice of foreign lawyers and law firms and assessing what the experience has been. The session will also discuss the rising challenges to globalisation (eg, sanctions, decoupling and de-dollarisation) and the impact, if any, on trade in legal services.
IBA Annual Conference Mexico City 2024
May 30, 2022
International human rights law (IHRL) and international investment law (IIL) are two influential subsets of public international law reflecting distinct purposes and historical evolutions. Nonetheless, the two subsets interact in the context of the investor–state dispute settlement system (ISDS), due to the rise in human rights claims under international investment agreements. This article appraises this interaction from the perspective of IHRL in light of the fragmentation of public international law. It argues for the need to recognise and assess concurrent international legal obligations systematically and coherently, suggesting that the principle of systemic integration could support the consideration of human rights treaty obligations in ISDS and promote legal accountability. Foreign direct investment and human rights are linked in complex and non-linear ways. Furthermore, a predictable, coherent and transparent legal approach is necessary to ensure that IIL respects substantive and procedural human rights. This may also bolster the legitimacy of ISDS by redressing perceived power imbalances. It may attenuate the potential negative externalities of granting broad, asymmetrical rights to investors without any concomitant obligations under investment treaties. This article concludes that to prevent accountability gaps, tribunals must recognise: (1) a home–host state continuum of human rights legal accountability; (2) home state obligations to protect against third party violations by its investors abroad; and (3) host state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights.
The Pandora Papers leak of confidential files again highlighted that clients may seek to misuse corporate structures and trust arrangements to hide assets. While the structures may be lawfully established in many jurisdictions, the assets placed in them can be tainted as deriving from the proceeds of crime.
Accordingly, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has called on various professions, including Lawyers, Accountants, Financial advisers, Trustee service providers and Real Estate dealers to do more to prevent financial crime.
FATF has support from groups ranging from the UN, OECD, World Bank, and Transparency International, to national and regional law enforcement agencies. And the G-20 nations’ leaders are pressing for beneficial ownership registers to be compiled in high risk countries.
This session will explore how, and why, banking and financial controls seeking to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing have been gradually expanded into the traditional professions, including:
• What is the FATF’s perspective on the major risk areas, and how they should be addressed?
• How have Bar Associations and Law Societies around the world tried to educate, guide, and monitor their members commitment to AML requirements?
• What more can be done to make the professions resilient against financial crime, and ensure AML-CFT controls are sufficiently adapted from their banking origins to meet the special features of the legal profession?
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
By Yi-An (Ann) Lai. Alipay and the impact of e-payment systems resulting in new regulations in China and other jurisdictions.
In this session, we will take an in-depth look at the following topics:
- Transparency of legal persons and legal arrangements;
- the next frontier in anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions;
- financial exclusion problems: are law firms expected to look and act like a bank?;
- 'Failure to prevent' offences — interaction and intrusion into legal practice.
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
Jun 18, 2024
Globally, the regulation of cryptocurrency is a complex and evolving terrain. Various jurisdictions have adopted diverse approaches, ranging from outright bans to varying degrees of oversight. In Nigeria, while there is no outright ban of cryptocurrency usage or trading, the regulatory regime remains in flux. The Nigerian government has navigated this landscape through a multi-agency approach, seeking to balance the potential benefits of cryptocurrency with mitigating risks like, foreign exchange volatility, money laundering and fraud. This article provides an overview of the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape in Nigeria, highlighting recent developments in this evolving space.
Traditionally, law firms were owned and invested in by lawyers to ensure that the firm remained independent and unbiased. However, this meant firms were restricted to the amount the owners could afford to invest into it. Since the Legal Services Act came into force in 2007 in the UK, law firms are now able to operate as Alternative Business Structures (ABS). Most notably, ABS’s are eligible to receive funding from external sources and be managed by non-solicitors. They’re also able to provide several services under one brand name – including non-legal services. In recent discussions, we are discovering that mainly common law firms are thinking about the possibilities and opportunities given by ABS. But where are the civil law firms? May they lose market shares and clients in their own countries when foreign law firms from common law jurisdictions offer services under the ABS umbrella internationally? Do clients interpret ABS as a sign of unreliability, although there are already plenty of professionals working in traditional law firms that are not legally fully qualified yet, as, for example, paralegals? What about initiatives in the Common Market and International Trade Agreements that may be capable to change the professional lives of lawyers in civil law countries (and not only there…)? We will talk with lawyers, policy makers and legal tech providers from civil and common law jurisdictions, to understand where the legal profession stands today and how it will flow tomorrow in the international legal market on ABS.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Apr 23, 2025
This year brought a slight change in how we approached our Big Retreat. The Officers’ Retreat and the Council Members’ Retreat were joined into a single event which took place in Budapest at the start of March 2025. Our Senior Vice Chair, Viktória Szilágyi from Lakatos Köves and Partners, carried out the work as this year’s gracious host and needed to accommodate such a large crowd with a full schedule. She certainly lived up to it!
IBA Management Board members only.
By invitation only: IBA Mid-Year Leadership Meetings 2023
Sep 13, 2022
Grand corruption – the abuse of public office for private gain by a nation’s leaders (kleptocrats) – is a major barrier to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, responding effectively to pandemics, fighting climate change, creating a level playing field for ethical international businesses, promoting democracy and human rights, establishing international peace and security, and securing a more just, rules-based global order.
The session time listed is British Summer Time (BST).
Representation of companies engaged in cross-border commerce means that the contemporary lawyer must be aware of legal issues from other jurisdictions. Lawyers may themselves engage in activities, virtually or in person, in other jurisdictions. Jurisdictions vary in their approaches to lawyers not licensed by them nonetheless acting for clients within their borders. Distinct differences exist regarding approaches to discovery, the boundaries of unauthorised practice of law, treatment of attorney client privilege, and requirements for mandatory continuing legal education, among others. Certain common law jurisdictions are decentralised as well in their approach to the regulation of lawyers as well as cross border practice, adding another layer of considerations. This session reviews some of the more common issues lawyers address in these circumstances and discusses how bar associations may assist.
All sessions are being recorded, unless otherwise stated.
Five considerations if your client faces extradition- Criminal Law/Business Crime Committees newsletter article, July 2020
"The system of institutionalized pro bono reflects what is best about the legal profession: private sector lawyers marshalling their resources to advance the interests of the poor and underserved. Yet the relationship between pro bono and the public good is more subtle and complex." (Scott L. Cummings, The Politics of Pro Bono, UCLA School of Law Public Law & Legal Theory Research Paper Series Paper No, 04-16, 2004, p.99)
Moral neutrality, business grounds and competing demands from liberal public interest groups and conservative organisations, can make it difficult to pursue justice-seeking pro bono efforts on a number of fronts. For example, the trans rights movement for extending basic legal rights and protections for a marginalized community has met with deep resistance in some corners and another example involves immigration rights. Pro bono efforts in the US during the Trump administration (and in some instances continuing through today) were at times frustrated with respect to the resettlement of Central American asylum seekers and refugees (in many instances involving children) as some law firms avoid taking “political” stances on these issues within their pro bono programs. The Afghan and Ukrainian crises are bringing similar concerns to the fore in Europe. Within large corporate law firms, which are the dominant providers of pro bono legal services, is it still legitimate to demand of pro bono lawyers to be morally neutral and stay clear of public interest lawyering which uses the law as a vehicle to combat social injustice?
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
SustainabilityFocusHumanRightsThis session will look at how human rights breaches feature in criminal enforcement action against corporates. Consideration will be given to the shifting focus from corruption to human rights. The session will look at how these issues can arise, including supply chain issues, fraudulent disclosure and climate control.
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.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Nov 14, 2024
A session report from the joint session of the IBA Regional Fora at the IBA Annual Conference 2024 in Mexico City.
This is an opportunity for Member Organisation Representatives to be updated on the status of ongoing projects in which the IBA is involved, and specifically those that touch on sensitive areas for bar associations.
It will also allow them to find out what work is being planned, and propose subject matter and programmes for future activities within our very dynamic BIC.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Oct 10, 2022
The protection of cultural property is crucial to the preservation of civilisations’ historical experiences. An articulation of this ethos in conjunction with the development of principles, such as military necessity, assist in understanding how and why the rules governing the protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict may be regarded as part of international humanitarian law.
What role does pro bono play in African countries in providing free legal services to the poor and underserved? Are law firms the dominant providers of pro bono legal services, or are they trailing behind the services provided by state-sponsored and non-governmental mechanisms; and if so, what are the reasons? For the first time in the history of the IBA, the Pro Bono Committee has undertaken a survey of the state of pro bono on the African continent, with a particular emphasis on the African IBA membership. This session will engage the results of the survey, and will be an opportunity to discuss whether there is a role for the IBA to assist with challenges and barriers identified in the survey results.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Sep 12, 2024
Nearly a decade has passed since the IBA Arbitration Day in Shanghai in March 2016, the first and to date only IBA Arbitration Day held in the People’s Republic of China. Multiple speakers expressed the view during the conference that, as a jurisdiction that is rapidly globalizing with an international outlook, China’s place in the international arbitration community was established and would only expand in importance. Justice Shen Hongyu of the People’s Supreme Court gave an address describing China as an enforcement-friendly jurisdiction. Not long after the 2016 IBA Arbitration Day, one commentator addressed how China might soon become an ‘international arbitration superpower’. Today, in 2024, we reflect on whether these expectations have been met. The answer is: more ‘no’ than ‘yes’.
The transfer of criminal liability in the mergers and acquisitions context is a complex issue which can have significant implications for the entities involved. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a rise in M&A activity, with due diligence often conducted in haste or in a more limited way. This session will look at the nature of issues that arise and how case law is evolving globally.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Sep 11, 2024
Globally, the regulation of cryptocurrency is a complex and evolving terrain. Various jurisdictions have adopted diverse approaches, ranging from outright bans to varying degrees of oversight. In Nigeria, while there is no outright ban on cryptocurrency usage or trading, the regulatory regime remains in a state of flux. The Nigerian government has navigated this landscape through a multi-agency approach, seeking to balance the potential benefits of cryptocurrency with mitigating the risks, such as foreign exchange volatility, money laundering and fraud. This article provides an overview of the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape in Nigeria, highlighting recent developments in this evolving space.
Aug 06, 2024
Microsoft’s retention of the employees of Inflection AI has surfaced a debate on whether employee acquisitions represent an enforcement gap in European merger control laws. Leaving aside whether there exists robust data that could confirm the magnitude of any gap, do the jurisdictional rules of the EU Merger Regulation and the Enterprise Act permit the review of employee acquisitions (or ‘acquihires’)? This article shows that those laws could be invoked in exceptional situations, notably where the ‘acquihire’ has structural components and eliminates competition from the prior employer.
BIC Officers only.
By invitation only: IBA Mid-Year Leadership Meetings 2023
Jan 19, 2023
As the United States has increased its use of sanctions, it has also refined the craft of sanctions. New sanctions concepts or tools have emerged in the last decade, leading to increased complexity in understanding, implementing and complying with these restrictions. Nowhere has this been seen more than in the US response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The use of sanctions as a tool of foreign policy has reached a critical juncture. This article discusses the successes of US sanctions with respect to Russia, novel challenges that have emerged and how sanctions infrastructure may evolve to address these challenges.
16th Annual Bar Leaders' Conference
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