 |
News From The IBA |
Second Issue of Business Law International Published
The second issue of Business Law International, the in-depth journal for international business lawyers, has been well received by IBA members and non-member subscribers alike. The journal features a pioneering article by Canadian lawyers, Simon Chester and J William Rowley QC, entitled ‘Conflicts of Interest, Chinese Walls and the Hanging Business of Law’, which examines for the first time, the growing confrontation between commerce and ethics in the face of global law firm mergers, global legal networks and mega-firms, and inter-professional collaboration.
Top courts around the world — culminating in England’s dramatic ruling involving Brunei Prince Jefri Bolkiah and KPMG — have toughened rules on professional conflicts of interest. The decision calls into question the whole elaborate edifice of rules and procedures that have grown up around ‘Chinese Walls’ and other internal screening devices. Whether these walls properly protect client interests is an open question.
The article details business stories of how legal and accounting firms defended their professional integrity. It concludes that the legal market of the 21st Century will have to become much more sophisticated in its approach to professional ethics if current trends continue.
The IBA is ideally placed to assist the international legal profession in overcoming this, and the other challenges it faces. The future of the legal profession was discussed in a showcase programme at the 1999 Business Law International Conference in Barcelona, and the debate will continue in the year 2000 Conference in Amsterdam (17–22 September). In 1998, a pilot World Trade Organisation (WTO) study on the future of the accountancy profession was completed. A consultancy exercise is currently being undertaken to examine the relevance of the resulting guidelines to the legal profession. This is one of the continuing issues in which the IBA represents the interests of Bar Associations and their members around the world.
Business Law International is available free to members of the IBA Section on Business Law for the duration of the year 2000.
Members can receive the journal in hard copy, or download it from the IBA website: www.ibanet.org. It is available to subscribers via the publishers Sweet & Maxwell and the West Group.
IBA Website
The IBA website (www.ibanet.org) features a large amount of information about the Association and its activities. There are pages specifically devoted to each Section, specialist Committee and Forum of the Association. General features of the IBA website include:
About the International Bar Association
The International Bar Association is the world’s largest international organisation of Law Societies, Bar Associations and individual lawyers engaged in international legal practice. The Association is composed of over 16,000 individual lawyer members in 183 countries and 178 Law Societies and Bar Associations, together representing more than 2.5 million lawyers. Joining the Association opens up a world of networking opportunities in the form of committees, conferences, publications and the IBA website.
The 57 specialist committees of the Association directly serve the needs of members and cover a vast range of legal subject matter — apart from the Corporate Counsel Committee, there are committees devoted to arbitration and ADR, aviation law, banking law, maritime and transport law, taxes, utility law, water law and many others. These committees are organised into three Sections, devoted respectively to business law, legal practice and energy and natural resources law. There are also various forums and working groups focusing on regions such as the Asia Pacific, or particular topics such as capital markets.
For further information, please contact:
Richard Rodger
Membership Services Manager
International Bar Association
271 Regent Street
London W1R 7PA
England.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7629 1206
Fax: +44 (0)20 7409 0456
E-mail:richard.rodger@int-bar.org