Conference programme

All Division members are encouraged to attend this meeting and are invited to put to the Officers any questions they may have, relevant to the work of the Division.

Announcement: Legal Practice Division General Meeting Agenda, Thursday 08 October 2026, Copenhagen, Denmark.

In accordance with the Legal Practice Division (LPD) By-Laws, Article 7.3 this serves as notice of the LPD General Meeting that will take place on Thursday 8 October at the time of the IBA 2026 Annual Conference in Copenhagen. This meeting will elect the Principal Officers and Council members of the Division. All Legal Practice Division members are eligible to attend the meeting.

The Agenda for the meeting announcing the Officers to be elected will be circulated nearer the Conference.

As global energy markets face increasing disruption, the oil & gas and maritime sectors are navigating a shared landscape of geopolitical risk, price volatility, and regulatory uncertainty. From strained supply chains and rising freight costs to the impact of sanctions and chokepoint disruptions, energy security has become a critical concern for both industries.

At the same time, the push toward net-zero is reshaping fuel supply, investment decisions, and operational models, often creating tension between long-term sustainability goals and the immediate need for reliable and affordable energy.

This session will examine the common legal and commercial challenges facing both sectors, including supply instability, fluctuating energy prices, evolving bunkering risks, and fragmented regulatory frameworks. It will also explore how closer alignment, through coordinated contracting, infrastructure planning, and risk-sharing mechanisms can enhance resilience and support a more stable energy environment.

Bringing together perspectives from across the energy and maritime value chain, the discussion will focus on practical solutions to ensure that energy security, commercial viability, and decarbonisation can progress hand in hand in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

Many hospitality parties operate in multiple jurisdictions where they have established relationships with their legal counsel. When venturing into new jurisdictions for the first time, this established legal support is absent. This panel, featuring several general counsels from the hospitality, leisure, and gaming sectors, will discuss how they search for and select new legal counsel in these jurisdictions to meet their specific needs.

The discussion will also explore how AI affects counsel selection: does it empower general counsel with greater flexibility in hiring decisions by serving as an independent check on counsel?

This panel will explore how privacy regulations, cybersecurity standards and financial rules interact within digital transaction ecosystems. By 2026, the rollout of Europe’s EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet under the eIDAS 2.0 framework will transform how individuals prove identity and how financial and digital services verify and protect it. As these trusted identity systems merge with payment infrastructures, new intersections arise between cybersecurity, privacy, and financial regulation and new questions emerge about who is responsible when things go wrong.  

One part of the discussion will examine how cybersecurity, privacy, and financial liability frameworks intersect in the four-party model, and the other will dive into the new regulatory and business realities of biometric identity in the wallet era. Together, the session will lay out how responsibility is distributed in case of data misuse, security breaches, or systemic failures, and how biometric-based identity proofs introduce new layers of both opportunity and risk. 

Panellists will explore:
·         how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), NIS2 Directive, and Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) interact with eIDAS 2.0 and wallet-based identity systems;
·         lawful bases and compliance design for biometric processing and selective disclosure of attributes;
·         the allocation of liability and trust among issuers, relying parties and technology providers; and
·         how digital identities enable passwordless access, reduce fraud and transform onboarding.

Bringing together regulators, policymakers and industry leaders, this session will bridge financial regulation and digital identity innovation, highlighting both regulatory gaps and emerging business opportunities in the future of secure digital transactions.

This session will explore dealing with the challenges of an (un)insured world.

This panel will examine recent developments in the sphere of investment arbitration and treaty practice.

This session will consider strategies to contend with these issues in conflict-affected countries and countries highly penetrated by organised crime.    

Over the past five years, ESG has shifted from theory to a core strategic and reputational concern for law firms, moving beyond client advice to impact firm operations, culture, and values. Today, firms are judged by a wider group of stakeholders, including clients, talent, regulators, and society. This session will focus on how firms are embedding ESG – covering climate, human rights, DEI, and ethical governance – into strategy and decision-making. With rising scrutiny, political pushback, and evolving expectations, law firms face new challenges and opportunities as they navigate what responsible business really means. Bringing together diverse perspectives, the session will ask: is ESG in law firms maturing or fragmenting? And how can firms show genuine leadership and impact in a fast-changing landscape?

This session will compare the US ESTA, the EU’s ETIAS, and the UK ETA systems – examining their scope, implementation challenges, and interoperability. It will explore legal, privacy, and human rights concerns associated with data collection, risk scoring, and algorithmic decision-making in traveller screening. Finally, it will discuss the impact on mobility, visa-free travel, and global business travellers of the implementation of these programmes in the EU, UK, US and several other countries.

New technologies and highly mobile workforces are reshaping the way business is conducted worldwide, both in terms of how goods and services are delivered to consumers and how entities within a multinational group interact and share resources. This panel will discuss some of the emerging income tax, transfer pricing, and withholding tax issues that arise as a result.

This session will examine the role of whistleblower reports in litigation, exploring the legal obligations, ethical considerations and strategic challenges they present. Participants will gain practical guidance on managing disclosures effectively while protecting both organisational interests and whistleblowers’ rights.

Conference attendees are invited to participate in this general meeting of the IBAHRI. During the meeting, IBAHRI Director Baroness Kennedy and IBAHRI Co-Chairs Hina Jilani and Mark Stephens CBE will discuss IBAHRI’s programmes and topical issues regarding human rights today. The discussion will be open to questions and suggestions related to the past, present and future work of the IBAHRI.

This session will consider how the UNGPs and other human rights standards have been used to hold corporations accountable for their impacts on climate change and nature, and what lessons lawyers can take from these when advising corporations across sectors. Among other things, it will consider the impacts of climate-related litigation, including national litigation relying on the climate crisis advisory opinions of the ICJ and the IACtHR.

This panel relates to the capacity of more experienced lawyers to adapt to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, wellbeing and work–life balance, and of young lawyers to inspire themselves in the ancient foundations of the profession.

The importance of compliance and transparency frameworks for doing business in Africa lawfully.