Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending the Annual Conference of the International Bar Association (IBA) in Rome and being part of discussions on the future of law involving some of the world’s leading practitioners.

Recognised as the world’s largest gathering of the legal profession, this year’s IBA broke all records for attendance, bringing together more than 6,000 delegates representing nearly 4,000 law firms, corporations, governments and regulators from 130 jurisdictions across the globe.

The program was on a “Roman empire-like scale” (with some modern-day traffic chaos thrown into the mix) with more than 200-plus working sessions over six days, an opening address by Romano Prodi, Former President of the European Commission and Former Prime Minister of Italy, a Conversation with Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, and a Rule of Law Symposium addressing business and the rule of law. 

The conference topics were vast, with a strong human rights component, great emphasis on ethics and much discussion about reshaping the European Union in the wake of Brexit.

Presentations on issues such as the future of technology and innovation in the law and artificial intelligence in the legal profession reinforced my view that the NSW Law Society is clearly at the cutting edge internationally in tackling the challenges (along with embracing the opportunities) that the legal profession is facing.

Other global issues highlighted at the conference included diversity in the workplace, the gender pay gap, and bullying and harassment in the workplace. On the latter subject, the IBA’s international survey on bullying and harassment is open until 26 October and I encourage all members to make it a priority to complete this survey and share the link with colleagues. 

The IBA President Martin Šolc also released the association’s Rule of Law video project at the conference. The series of short videos, which end with the tagline, “Look after the Rule of Law and it will look after you”, are an incredibly valuable resource which the legal profession can take back to their communities to explain why the rule of law is so vital in everyday life – and to point out the implications when it is curtailed. 

Doug Humphreys
Law Society President 2018
Twitter:  @LSNSW_President

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