|
|
Mar 16, 2023
Through the early part of the 21st century, China’s economy has seen relentless growth. Now, a slow-down, the pandemic and various geopolitical issues is are forcing international law firms to rethink their strategies.
The factors to consider when preparing a (re)insurer or intermediary for a sale process, or when undertaking due diligence for a buyer of such an entity, with a focus on insurtechs and 2024's hot topics.
IBA Insurance Conference 2024: AI in insurance and other global insights
The Asset Recovery Committee, re-launched as an independent committee in 2023, provides an international platform for private and public-sector practitioners, civil society, international and regional organizations, policy makers, experts and funders to meet and discuss best practice and experience in the field of asset tracking and recovery, including asset recovery laws and orders, practical tools and techniques, know-how and case studies, from both criminal and civil law perspectives, across both civil and common law jurisdictions.
Dec 15, 2020
When algorithms used by businesses or government agencies make unintentionally biased decisions, the impact on people can be profound. Global Insight assesses what can be done to re-humanise these decisions, and to provide explanations of the outcomes to those affected.
The proliferation of class action regimes around the world has created significant risks for defendants who increasingly face parallel mass litigation or class action suits in a growing number of jurisdictions. How are these regimes developing in an antitrust context - are they opt in or opt out? What approach are the courts taking in terms of evidence and disclosure? Which regimes seem to be ”claimant friendly”. For parties and legal practitioners involved in cross-border class actions, how can an effective antitrust class action strategy be developed to handle concurrent lawsuits in different jurisdictions? What insights can be gained to preserve the defense of a case in one jurisdiction without compromising positions in others?
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Feb 19, 2025
In-depth examination of the role and application of the res judicata principle in international arbitration
The role of the courts in arbitration: an Asia Pacific perspective
When referring to an arbitrator’s potential lack of independence or impartiality, one usually thinks in terms of the arbitrator’s relationship with the parties, either personal or professional rather than a relationship to the subject matter of the dispute. That must change. The proliferation in the number and frequency of conferences, law firm ‘Alerts’, so-called ‘Client Briefings’, webinars, blogs and published papers in journals tends to the irresistible conclusion that [...]
At last, a flurry in appointments of female leaders at many of the world’s largest law firms has occurred. This reached cruising speed as from 2020 and has not stopped since. It should not stop!
This showcase will consist in a conversation between some of those top female leaders, the IBA female leadership and a leadership expert from a INSEAD business school.
The dialogue will address the qualities that such leaders bring to the management table and what firms can do to keep the positive vibe from female leadership once they have moved on and have been succeeded by other, male colleagues?
Female Leadership Excellence in Law Firms: coincidence or here to stay?
Based on research involving 64.000 people in 13 countries, John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio identified that there is a shift in the types of leadership traits that are associated with success, morality and happiness.
The old masculine traits of aggression control, conflict and command are rapidly losing ground to behaviour, that is considered more feminine, like: selflessness, empathy, collaboration, flexibility and patience. Both male and female respondents in all researched countries expressed that this is the type of leadership which they consider most suitable for the rapidly changing and unpredictable world we live in. The researchers named this type of leadership: “The Athena Doctrine” (see TEDX Talk).
While these traits can be found both in men and women, it is clear that the Athena Doctrine particularly offers a great opportunity for women to soar in top positions. This session will discuss the following questions:
- How does the Athena doctrine translate to leadership in law firms?
- How do the leaders we have at the session relate to the Athena Doctrine?
- What particular features do they trust that they are bringing to the table?
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Dec 14, 2022
It was Latin America’s most hotly contested run-off for decades. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the second round at the end of October, winning 50.9 per cent of the vote compared with Bolsonaro’s 49.1 per cent.
Jun 18, 2020
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) condemns the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order 2020 (the ‘Order’) issued by the Government of India, which amends legislation and repeals 29 laws that previously granted the rights of employment, land acquisition and political representation exclusively to the indigenous population of Jammu and Kashmir.
All Officers of the IBA Regional Fora are invited.
By invitation only: IBA Mid-Year Leadership Meetings 2023
Although Brazil’s (re)insurance sector faces challenges of managing exposures during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Brazilian insurance regulator is in a process of modernising the sector, which will result in opportunities in the near future.
This session will discuss ethical aspects of sports and if the current framework of sports law is adequate to give a practical solution to challenges such as doping, bribery and sources of funding. The panel will be composed of professionals with different backgrounds who will look into these topics addressing recent cases and offering their perspectives to enrich the debate.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have caused reverberations throughout the insurance sector worldwide. Ireland is no exception.
In this article, we discuss the Irish regulator, the Central Bank of Ireland’s (the Central Bank) response to Covid-19 in the Irish insurance market; the test cases in progress, and what the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) test case could mean for Irish insurers; and the likely future impact of Covid-19 on the insurance sector.
Jul 25, 2024
Parties in the US including consumers and employees are bringing claims as mass arbitration, which is unique from class actions that have been the focus for many years. The new mass arbitrations present a unique challenge to companies, and call into the question whether and how to negotiate arbitration and class action waiver provisions in contracts.
Of Ponzi and pyramid schemes: crossing international borders and building the picture
Oct 21, 2022
The application of ‘Group of Companies’ doctrine in arbitration has been criticized by jurists and arbitration practitioners in both civil and common law countries for diluting consent and allowing addition of parties thus changing the manner in how arbitrations should be conducted. The doctrine has found its usage especially in multi-party proceedings and is intrinsically linked to piercing the corporate veil. In this article, we have attempted to trace the evolution of this principle in the Indian context (domestic and international commercial arbitrations) and discuss some scenarios which could call for its application in future.
Join us for an illuminating session that delves into the nuances and strategies of presenting effective pitches in diverse legal environments. Whether you’re an international law practitioner, a global business leader or a legal enthusiast, this discussion is a must-attend event.
IBA Annual Conference Mexico City 2024
Oct 06, 2017
News Release: Friday 6 October 2017. In an open letter to President Donald Trump, signed by Baroness Helena Kennedy and Ambassador (ret) Hans Corell – former United Nations Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs – the Co-Chairs of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) call on President Trump to ‘re-evaluate [his] administration’s stance towards human rights, the judicial system and the rule of law’, and to openly commit to these principles at home and..
A webinar presented by the IBA Real Estate Section
Illicit financial flows, drivers of poverty and vulnerability: a sustainable development quagmire
Dec 05, 2022
The International Bar Association (IBA) urges states to increase support and resources for the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the commencement of the 21st annual session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) – the Court's management oversight and legislative body composed of representatives of the states...
At the end of May, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Romania and Lithuania for complicity in the CIA’s ‘extremely harsh’ treatment of the detainees Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah at European black sites during the so called ‘war on terror’. But the European Court said this inhumanity paled next to the ‘most brutal torture’ and ‘shocking… cruel treatment’ that the CIA had inflicted on the same men elsewhere. Also in May, a matter of days before, the US Senate confirmed as CIA director t
The way legal services are provided continues to be reshaped by the evolution and innovation in the digital and technological spheres. Lawyers are undergoing a so-called digital transformation and are faced with myriad options when it comes to choosing or developing appropriate technological tools not only for providing legal services to their clients but also for managing their own firms.
Time and experience continue to show that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to law firms when making their technological choices as they undergo this digital transformation. This session will explore the experience of small/medium sized law firms in this regard to give insight into the challenges and opportunities this process entails.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Champerty re-emerges: an overview of recent US Circuit Court rulings - Litigation Committee newsletter article, April 2020
The legal profession is under attack. Every day, new accusations of enabling criminal and unethical activity emerge, and calls to end self-regulation grow ever louder.
What are we to do about this?
So far, the profession’s response has been mixed, and even contradictory. Criminal lawyers rightly point out that it is their corporate counterparts who are the targets of most criticisms, risking a dangerous division of the profession. Others argue that even acknowledging the validity of some of these attacks will have catastrophic results, and risks opening the Pandora’s Box of lawyers becoming associated with the interests of their clients. ‘Lawyers are politically and ethically neutral figures, and should be permitted to advise their clients on any course of action so long as it is legal’ is the standard reply, but is this true?
How unfair are the criticisms being levelled at the profession? Is it not already heavily divided? Do the profession’s core principles even apply to corporate lawyers anymore? And if corporate lawyers have become businessmen first, and legal professionals second, what does this mean in a world where big business is being increasingly regulated along ethical lines? Events are already pushing the profession in a certain direction, regardless of how much we might object: law firms have traditionally been reluctant to draw ethical lines in the sand, yet recent events in Russia and Ukraine have forced many firms to start taking an ethical stance where they might not have previously.
Yet is the formal ethical regulation of lawyers actually possible when our profession is founded on the certainty of statute, reasoned judicial precedent, and independent regulation? Are those trying to adapt the law to ever-changing ethical standards simply giving in to cancel culture and mob rule? Or are they simply acknowledging the reality of the new world of social activism in which business, law, and all of us now operate, one which we ignore at our peril?
This session will attempt to tackle some of these thorny issues and marks the formal start of the IBA’s broader engagement with its members on these vital questions.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Digital practices and the related use of personal data are now at the heart of many projects in the healthcare sector, and the Covid-19 crisis has had a boosting effect on this phenomenon. A key question is how to use such data for secondary purposes, including for sake of health research? Under French law, such re-use is possible, subject to a strict protection of personal data and the privacy of individuals.
Autonomous vehicles and passenger drones are coming to us soon, and expected to forever change the way we commute, travel, and even entertain. Various legal issues will be triggered, including data privacy, consumer protection, and AI regulation. The panel will discuss the challenges and the benefits from legal and practical perspectives.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Nov 25, 2021
India has a strong labour-centric protectionist regime under the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 (‘ID Act’), which applies to the ‘workman’ category of workforce. The issue of coverage of sales promotion employees within the purview of ‘workman’ has been inadequately addressed, notwithstanding the legislative developments intended to cover such employees directly under the ID Act. This article discusses the issue and the relevant legal developments, while also highlighting the limited role played by the judiciary in addressing the question.
The panel will explore the relationship between the commercial success of law firms and risk management, but with a particular emphasis on exploring some of the aspects of lawyers’ personalities which give rise to both risks and opportunities. Scientific research by Dr Larry Richard, whom we propose to invite to join the panel, shows that lawyers display various outlying personality traits, such as low resilience and high levels of scepticism. Many risks for law firms, including financial mismanagement, ethical breaches, poor client service and well-being issues start with human behaviour and at the root of almost all commercial risks is a person’s mindset. Understanding and developing programmes and policies to take account of this is key to successful law firm culture and ultimately drives commercial success, leads to improvements in well-being and fosters and inclusive environment.
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
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.
Advancements in technology are changing lawyers’ work as we've known it. Whether the legal profession will successfully navigate the myriad of problems and opportunities arising in the digital space remains to be seen. AI ranks at the top of the IBA’s strategic plan and many other organisations’ priorities. This panel, composed of regulators, industry experts and lawyers, will delve into how the legal services landscape is changing amidst regulatory developments across various jurisdictions.
IBA Annual Conference Mexico City 2024
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.
A section-wide session organised by the Human Resources Section looking at the global trends in employment law and human resources (HR) practice.
IBA Annual Conference Mexico City 2024
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.
By Bruno Robert and Lucas Carneiro Gorgulho Mendes Barros. Is it time to end the Brazilian ban on multi-voting shares? - Securities Law Committee newsletter article, March 2020.
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
Aug 05, 2024
In this article, the authors trace the history, evolution and latest developments of the antitrust laws’ application to labour markets in the United States. Then, they describe common types of claims in labour markets cases, before analysing recent criminal and civil wage-fixing, no poach, and merger challenges. The authors conclude by providing actions companies should consider taking, as they seek to avoid finding themselves as a defendant in an antitrust–labour markets case.
Oct 27, 2021
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) calls on Turkey’s authorities to release Osman Kavala unconditionally and immediately as per the legally binding decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered more than two years ago.
Championing sustainability in changing times: how can law firms adapt and thrive?
This article discusses the extraterritorial laws applied by the United States, and the European Union’s response to these laws, since the 1990s. The stakes of this dynamic are high, as extraterritorial laws put in question states’ sovereignty. The evolution of these relations is to be closely watched, as the European Union and its Member States are finding diversified and innovative ways to reaffirm their sovereignty in the face of US extraterritorial laws, even if it is has been with limited success.
Law firm leaders, in-house counsels and D&I experts will lead a discussion on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and on the opportunity (or not) of designing and implementing diversity and inclusion policies in law firms. The IBA project consisting in drafting of a global D&I toolkit for law firms of different sizes across the various jurisdictions will be presented.
After a brief overview of the key elements of the IBA D&I toolkit, a discussion will be encouraged on the following topics: (i) the main challenges that law firms may face when implementing diversity and inclusion policies, (ii) how law firms can ensure that diversity and inclusion is not just a checkbox exercise, but rather a true commitment to creating a more equitable workplace, (iii) what steps law firms can take to guarantee that diversity and inclusion remains a priority in their organization, (iv) how law firms can "sell” their diversity and inclusion efforts to clients, and what benefits this can bring to them.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Oct 14, 2022
The European Union‘s strategy for data, aims at creating a single market for data that will allow it to flow freely within the EU and across sectors for the benefit of businesses, researchers and public administrations. The free movement of data is defined as the ‘five freedoms’ of the European market. In this context, on 23 February 2022 the European Commission published its proposal for a regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data.
DiversityInclusionHumanRightsNow that the pandemic is endemic, remote work issues have become vexatious for both employers and employees. Both employers and employees are struggling to make sense of today’s application of pandemic employment, immigration, compensation/benefits/rewards, tax, discrimination and diversity practices.
This panel will address those issues and offer both legal and practical solutions and best practices for employers in their quest to retain talent post-pandemic without compromising future business imperatives brought on by potential industry downturns. Employer compliance, business demands and employee health and welfare will be addressed by discussing risks and benefits, needs and wants, law versus policy and current employment practices against possible terminations. Immigration, tax, employment, and compensation/benefits issues have never been so complex.
This is a time to take stock of worldwide employment rules and practices and consider how the future of employment/immigration/tax law will adapt to a world in need of talent during a period of significant and likely continued uncertainty.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Aviation has been one of the most affected business sectors since Covid-19 started spreading around the world. The initial response of most countries to this pandemic has been to close their borders and restrict travel. Consequently, global air traffic dropped by 73.7 per cent in April 2020, compared to the previous year.
Digital nomads are on the rise and in order to benefit from this new phenomenon, companies need to address the many associated challenges: employment law, visa issues, taxation, etc. The session aims to give useful insights from all of these view angles and to shed light on this somehow untangible phenomenon.
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
Oct 07, 2022
This panel, at the 19th Annual International Mergers and Acquisitions Conference in New York, was led by David Ross and Eric Schiele and comprised two leading judges from the State of Delaware, the most significant jurisdiction for corporate law in the United States. The panel discussed actions taken by the Delaware judicial system in response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as recent corporate law trends in the corporate and M&A field, including matters concerning board fiduciary duties and shareholder rights.
Aug 05, 2024
European antitrust policy faces three critical stress tests as the new European Commission (2024–29) takes office. The first test challenges the EU’s Article 22 referral policy, which allows the Commission to review global mergers, raising concerns about extraterritoriality and legal principles. Predicted to fail, this test questions the Brussels Effect’s sustainability. The second test examines the Digital Markets Act’s (DMA) aim for regulatory dialogue over litigation in digital competition. Early investigations against major tech firms suggest a litigation-driven enforcement, risking the DMA’s intended regulatory approach. The third test evaluates artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, balancing competition and innovation. Success is possible if the EU adopts a practical, rational approach, recognising AI’s complex layers and promoting competition across the entire AI infrastructure. These stress tests present significant challenges and necessitate strategic responses to ensure robust and effective antitrust policies in Europe.
Apr 21, 2023
The number of employees suffering from burnout in Brazil is significant. As it is now considered an occupational phenomenon, companies should be mindful to prevent it and structure the necessary measures to create a healthier workplace.
In an era of relentless innovation and disruption, are lawyers keeping pace with the rest of the world, or do they need to create purple cows? In this essay, submitted as part of the IBA Senior Lawyers’ and Young Lawyers’ Committee Scholarship, Stella Loong discusses what the legal profession can learn from Fintechs.
|
