Conference programme

It is consensus that one of the most difficult subjects regarding damage compensation is establishing the amount due in cases of moral, existential or spiritual suffering imposed by unlawful actions. It is even more challenging when the victims do not have the same cultural background of judges and lawyers, like in cases of harm caused to indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities or isolated communities. This session will dive into this topic to investigate if it is possible to think in criteria or methods to quantify compensation due in such cases.

This session aims to explore the developing legal landscape of the intersection of ESG and product liability by considering the following:

• business disclosure, branding, or marking alleged inadequate, improper and misleading claims;
• regulatory direction, guidance, and enforcement on ESG claims and product compliance;
• product safety and consumer expectations under existing regulatory frameworks concerning a wide array of regulated product categories;
• offensive and defensive strategies in defending against disputes surrounding ESG and product liability; and
• best practices on mitigating risk and avoiding liability exposure.

This sesion will be using SLIDO.  To participate go to SLIDO.com and enter the code: 3627116

Small and medium sized law firms are often disproportionally affected by geopolitical events and economic instability; they tend to have smaller cash reserves, find it more difficult to attract and retain talent in times of labour shortage and lack the non-lawyer expert input that international firms would tend to receive.

In this session we will examine the challenges and potential solutions to sustainable profitability, for such small and medium sized law firms.

Companies with multi-line businesses are broken up for many reasons, often under investor pressure to unlock value by increasing “corporate clarity” and management focus. There is a range of techniques and corporate structures used to implement such separations, including most often spin-offs and split-offs. This expert panel will explore why and when such corporate divorces are undertaken, what factors are taken into account in choosing the best way to effectuate these transactions, and how to avoid pitfalls and ensure their success with particular focus on capital markets regulatory requirements imposed on public issuers.

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.

M&A transactions are full of challenges, every deal is different and requires transaction lawyers with experience and deal mindedness – on both the in-house and the outside counsel side. On the panel, experienced in-house and outside M&A counsel from various countries will explain how good lawyering will lead to a successful deal. They will discuss the expectations an in-house lawyer has of outside counsel, in particular regarding a proper mix of legal and commercial advice, cost estimates as well as budgets, and how outside counsel can live up to them all the way to a successful closing and beyond. They will also explain what a good in-house M&A counsel should focus on in order to facilitate the deal.

Women make up the majority of law students and graduates globally, however this is not reflected in the statistics of those working at senior levels, across all legal sectors, where women still constitute a far smaller proportion than their male counterparts. When women are not equally represented on management level, young female talent lack role models as they cannot identify with leadership which creates an identity distance and leads to them feeling less entitled to leadership positions than their male counterparts. This creates a barrier in women’s ambition and entitlement and means that women lawyers do not have the same basis and support for aiming high, having aspirations, and becoming leaders. To allow for the inequality on management level to equalise, the need for law firms to have formal sponsorship best practices and to install requirements for male leaders to sponsor up-and-coming women lawyers have been accentuated. The panel will present the WLC Sponsorship Best Practices and the panellists will discuss and share experiences in connection to sponsorships.

The roundtables discussions cover topics of imminent importance often influenced by the submitted National Reports, by measures of legislation, the OECD or other international bodies, and aim at involving the audience in a particularly personal manner

In 2022 many countries adopted ambitious and generous strategies to scale-up renewable energy capacity, through a combination of funding or offtake programs to rapidly build-out renewable power production or to expand domestic manufacturing capacity and supply chains and access to components and raw materials. The programmes were often taken to address energy price inflation and volatility or in response to perceived threats to national security due to armed conflicts and natural disasters. What were these legal regimes? What is the impact a year later? Have projects advanced towards energy justice (the goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system)?

This panel, sponsored jointly by the Antitrust and the Criminal Law Committees, will examine current trends in civil and criminal antitrust enforcement across multiple jurisdictions. Firstly, the panel will survey newly imposed obstacles to mergers in both the USA and the EU. Secondly, the panel will examine recent ground-breaking criminal prosecutions involving “no-poach” agreements, where businesses agree not to compete for each other’s employees. Thirdly, the panel will discuss the return of dawn raids in the wake of the COVID crisis receding. In addition, the panel will examine the continuing enforcement focus on digital markets and large tech platforms.

Finding the balance between decarbonisation, security of supply and a just energy transition in the oil and gas sector. A lawyer’s perspective.
The impacts of the Russian-Ukraine conflict on the energy matrix have changed the landscape of supply/demand and shown the world the importance of energy security. At the same time, an increasing number of global and local players are committed with net zero targets. The panelists will discuss what lawyers can do to support a fair and balanced transition of the oil and gas sector.

Want to increase the profitability of your company by 36%? Have a diverse leadership team? This session will address how the push for diversity drives a positive shift in governance and corporate transactions overall.

An open meeting of the International Construction Projects Committee, held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.

The session will seek to provide insight into the role of lawyers in contributing to this encroachment on global human rights of freedom of expression and access of information through pre-action demand letters, injunctions, and SLAPP suits, as well as the role of the bar, judges, and professional associations in stemming the tide of this abuse. The last decade has seen a significant decline in democracy and press freedoms coinciding with a rise in totalitarian regimes and a panoply of legal tactics used to silence critics. Lawyers are playing a significant role in this assault on freedoms, and, in some jurisdictions, regulatory authorities have taken notice. This panel will explore what can be done to defend against the various tactics being employed before litigation ensues, in the courtroom, and what the profession can do to tamp down on bad actors.

A well-functioning securitisation market is essential to the development of banks lending to corporates and financing investments in green and technological projects, removing risk from the banks’ balance sheets and more generally, facilitate economic recovery after the pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis. There have been many efforts recently to dynamize securitisation, such as the European Commission’s Capital Markets Union Action Plan entered into force in 2019, and yet in many jurisdictions, outstanding securitisation volumes tend to remain below market needs. The purpose of the session is to consider legal stakes, challenges and hurdles to the growth of securitisation from an international perspective as well as recent initiatives and proposals for reforms, addressing issues like financing techniques of receivables purchase, standardisation, sustainability, collateral arrangements, proportionality of information to investors, accounting and prudential treatment with a view to assist practitioners in handling securitisation transactions and anticipating changes.
 

This session will examine attitudes to plagiarism amongst students and junior lawyers, and the challenges it represents to the profession. Many students now see "copy and paste" as a legitimate means of preparing assessments, and this can bleed into their approach to practise as lawyers. While such an approach may be efficient, if done excessively and without proper attribution, it represents an academic offence of plagiarism. In a practice context, it represents unethical practice and potentially significant breach of copyright. It also demonstrates a lack of the ability to articulate ideas and themes in the lawyer’s own words, basic communications skills needed at all professional levels. How should law firms and universities deal with this worrying new mindset and potentially unethical practice - do we need to be more accepting of such new approaches and, if not, how can we effectively control this rapidly escalating problem? 

A panel with a twist – our panellists will be speaking about new regulations and related concerns of the automotive and mobility services sector. We will hear news from various regions of the world. Some might be reasonable, some quite outrageous. There will also be a surprise element to the panel that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Multi-club ownership (MCO) has grown significantly in soccer (and other sports) over the past five years and the trend isn’t slowing down. In general sports investment has been increasing, and across the board that has driven investor interest. This has a knock-on effect on player transfers, commercial opportunities, the development of new leagues, and the overall competitive balance and fair play of sport across the globe. This session will look at the effects of in sport, in particular MCO and new competitions, and, will consider the opportunities and challenges which arise including from the perspective of the regulators.

Unilateral enforcement is tightening around the world and authorities are increasingly creative in their proposed theories of harm. In many jurisdictions, the investigations take years (and substantive costs) to resolve, while distinguishing between pro and anti-competitive unilateral conduct is far from straightforward. Hear from our very experienced and diverse group of panelists the current (and sometimes conflicting) trends across the globe in this area, key challenges involved in analysing unilateral conduct in different economic sectors (especially in IT/tech), and if greater convergence and sound enforcement of laws governing unilateral conduct is an achievable goal in the foreseeable future.