So What’s Happening in the Convention Centre?
That’s the question that my taxi driver asked as I hopped into his car last week outside the Convention Centre. The International Bar Association Annual Conference was held in the Convention Centre with over 5,200 delegates from all over the world attending the event. They included in house counsel, lawyers from small boutique firms right up to the big global corporate law firms such as Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Skadden Arps. The event opened with a very large Irish styled event in the RDS where an Taoiseach wowed the crowd.
Multiple interactive working sessions using every available room in the Convention Centre were the order of the day covering diverse topics ranging from structuring complex real estate transactions to ‘Getting Personal – the tension between social media and work’. These were interspersed with breakfast and lunch presentations on general interest topics such as Baroness Helena Kennedy on Human Rights and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammed Yunnus on a company law rethink to help the world’s poor and Cherie Booth QC was spotted actively engaged in an employment law session.
Mary Robinson was the guest speaker at the George Seward Memorial Lecture in honour of one of the founders of the IBA in its current form who died last February aged 101. Mrs Robinson gave an interesting slant on “climate justice” and the role that the ethical approach on the part of lawyers in their work can have on influencing a different approach in industries that have a major impact on Climate Change. This was followed by a book signing by Mrs Robinson of her biography “Everybody Matters”.
It wasn’t all work and evening events were held by different sections of the IBA affording delegates the chance to engage in a less formal setting and build working relations which in many cases span a working life time. Added to this many delegate firms held their own receptions – ranging from a Lord Mayor’s welcome in the Mansion House, to a Scandinavian firm rocking St Mary’s Church Bar with a U2 cover band and the partners of a magic circle London firm treating guests to their own rendition of ‘Molly Malone’.
The conference ended with quite a celebration in the Guinness Storehouse on Friday night where delegates were educated on the brewing process and the art of pulling a perfect pint, entertained with Irish music and dance and serenaded to “Danny Boy”. It was a wonderful success and really showcased Dublin as a superb venue for large conferences.
Any chance it would be held again here next year, my taxi driver asks hopefully? None, it’s off to Boston and then Tokyo in 2014. Last time it was held in Dublin was 1968. Based on the success of this event, the excellent job done by the organisers, in particular Michael Greene, Chair of the Conference Host Committee, Chair of the IBA’s Legal Practices Division, for being a prime mover in attracting the event to Dublin and the Dublin community in facilitating it I expect smaller divisional meetings of the IBA will be back in the near future.
Contributed by Myra Garrett, Managing Partner.
To view a selection of photos from the William Fry Evening Reception to celebrate the International Bar Association Annual Conference in Dublin, please click here.
