Conference programme

More than 50 per cent of lawyers under 40 identify meaningful work as essential for their career, confirming that values and purpose now play a central role in new lawyers’ career decisions.  

This session will explore how purpose-driven lawyering is impacting the attraction and retention of talent, and also how this requirement of purpose is influencing firm culture, education, leadership and client relationships. It will invite participants to reflect on how meaning and impact can coexist with excellence, performance, and profitability.

AI development in this past decade has seen a fairly steep curve. But are persons with disabilities being equally taken along on this roller coaster ride? In this session we will discuss the opportunities and challenges that this new tech presents for persons with disabilities. Opportunities can include assistive technologies such as AI-powered tools like voice recognition, screen readers and predictive text enhance accessibility for people with visual, hearing or motor impairments. Further, they can create inclusive hiring processes: AI tools can adapt tests or interviews to individual accessibility needs, helping level the playing field for candidates with disabilities. AI can help reduce human bias in recruitment when properly designed, by focusing on skills and qualifications rather than personal attributes.

They can also create flexible work environments: AI-powered systems can help facilitate remote work, job customisation or workflow automation that accommodates different needs. Challenges can include biases in AI hiring tools: hiring and performance evaluation tools may inadvertently disadvantage candidates with disabilities due to lack of representation or implicit bias in algorithms. Further, there can be a lack of accessibility in AI systems: AI-powered systems (eg, chatbots, automated scheduling) may not be designed for assistive technologies like screen readers or voice control. There are also privacy and surveillance concerns: employees may feel pressured to disclose disabilities in environments where AI tracks health, mobility or productivity patterns. Finally, there are automation risks: routine or low-skill jobs, often held by persons with disabilities, are most at risk of automation.

This panel will examine the multiple and countervailing roles of artificial intelligence in conflict, including: the ethical and legal responsibility challenges that are arising; the uses of AI in monitoring and early warning systems for atrocity prevention; accountability, international standards and guidelines on the use of AI; and other pressing issues.

The boundaries between legitimate tax planning and criminal tax evasion are increasingly under scrutiny. This panel will examine the criminal law risks associated with cross-border tax structuring and the evolving distinction between tax avoidance and criminal conduct. Topics include national and international approaches to criminal liability for aggressive tax planning, the reporting obligations of tax advisors and the mechanisms for information exchange and cooperation in cross-border investigations. The discussion will also address the institutions and legal instruments available to prosecutors and regulators confronting complex, multi-jurisdictional tax cases.

Cross border e-commerce has grown exponentially in the past decade, creating unprecedented challenges to border controls. The inability for customs authorities to control compliance in billions of small parcels has resulted over time in the importation of products that often do not comply with product regulations, supply chain due diligence requirements, and are imported in fraud to customs duties and other import taxes.

As a reaction, in 2025, the United States removed the de minimis exemption that allowed the importation of those products duty free. The European Union adopted in March 2026 an entirely new customs code, and created a new customs authority and central EU customs data hub, to better control its borders and address the challenge of cross-border e-commerce.  The EU will also remove its own de minimis exemption on 1 July 2026. These recent changes will have a profound impact on anyone involved in cross border e-commerce: logistics operators, platforms and sellers in China and elsewhere. Flows of products that were intended for the US and EU are likely to be directed to other markets. The recent customs reforms will have an impact on all imports, beyond ecommerce.

Our panel of customs lawyers and officials from customs authorities and the European Commission will review and discuss these issues and be there to answer your questions.

Across Europe, governments are stepping up to accelerate innovation through targeted incentives, funding schemes and policy reforms. Moreover, private initiatives are driving harmonisation and helping to overcome market fragmentation. This panel explores how such initiatives are driving startup and scaleup growth, attracting venture capital, and shaping the continent’s competitiveness in the global innovation landscape. Experts will share insights, best practices and lessons learned from leading European ecosystems.

This session will explore how innovation can be balanced with client trust, confidentiality, and professional responsibility. It'll look too at flexible, AI-enhanced roles, on-demand talent (including contract lawyers, project-based specialists, etc) and the implications for client service, cost efficiency etc. How can leaders navigate with agility and resilience when navigating rapid change from regulatory shifts, geopolitical issues, and client demand?

The panel will focus on the interaction between the enforcement of IP rights and competition law and particularly how the legitimate enforcement of exclusive rights can be reconciled with the prohibition of abuse of dominant position or economic dependency. While the uneasy coexistence between exclusive rights and competition law has kept regulators and courts busy for many years, it has come to the forefront again following the decision of the European Commission to fine the pharmaceutical company Teva not less than EUR 462.6m for abusing its dominant position to delay competition by playing a 'divisional game.' The panel will address questions about abuses of IP protection systems creating actionable competition abuses.

This session, popularly known as the M&A café, is dedicated to international M&A lawyers looking to hone their craft and meet new M&A contacts from around the world. It will involve 10 roundtables and five topics, with moderators knowledgeable on each topic guiding the conversation at the table. Unlike panel discussions, the format is highly interactive and conducive to engaging in meaningful conversation, sharing the experiences of peers and exchanging contacts, with or without coffee. Every 30 minutes, participants will rotate to another table, providing the opportunity to discuss two topics of interest, meet at least 30 new M&A lawyers from around the world and build their network.

Table topics:

1. Evolution of the due diligence exercise
2. Current trends in FDI and merger control in cross-border M&A
3. Impact of AI on dealmaking
4. How is geopolitics shaping the M&A market?
5. Current trends in private equity transactions

This session will examine how activist investors increasingly shape shareholder litigation and corporate governance. Panellists will explore the strategies activists use to influence legal action, challenge management decisions and drive governance reforms. The discussion will also address key ethical and regulatory considerations – such as transparency, alignment of shareholder interests and litigation financing – along with the resulting market and corporate impacts. Attendees will gain practical insight into the evolving role of activism in high-stakes litigation and its implications for global legal practice.

A discussion regarding the state of international law, norms and institutions under the stress of a world shifting towards multi-polarity and great power rivalry.

Inspired by the words of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella at the opening of the IBA Annual Conference in Toronto, this session will consider how lawyers and the law can be used as tools of authoritarianism and how justice must inform and infuse the rule of law.

A look at the weaponisation of the legal process against perceived political opponents in various jurisdictions and the implications for the rise of populism and the rule of law.