Along with climate change, corruption is one of the greatest challenges facing our world this century.

In response, the global legal community has a vital role to play in terms of maintaining its own ethical and professional standards, while also doing what it can to ensure the just and peaceful achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals, and the protection of fundamental human rights. All of these goals, however, are threatened by high-profile and endemic levels of corruption, both within our profession, and within those societies in which we operate, and business communities we serve.  

The IBA, as the global voice of the legal profession, is looking to meet these challenges in a variety of ways, which this session will aim to explore and elucidate. Having already undertaken an anti-corruption survey earlier this year, our discussion will include a showcasing of results from that study, as well as any recommendations that have emerged. In particular, we will focus on proposed next steps for the IBA’s renewed anti-corruption strategy. This major project will engage all members of our organisation as part of a cross-IBA taskforce, drawing upon interest and expertise from across LPD, SPPI and the BIC.

As the results of our recent survey have shown, corruption affects all of us, regardless of practice area or jurisdiction. The direction of travel is also far from positive. This session will explore what we can do as an international community to start reversing these trends, as well as the support that we can offer each other, and our profession more broadly, to combat these issues.