With a packed programme at the International Bar Association’s (IBA) annual conference in Boston, working out which of the many (and sometimes dry) debates to attend is a challenge, but one of the stand-outs from the first day was the discussion on anti-corruption.
That this session was packed is unsurprising; one of the major forces currently shaping the legal profession at a global level has been the sustained crackdown on corruption in many forms, be it graft, tax avoidance or cartels.This factor has been enough to create a fundamental shift in the demand for high-end legal services away from transactional work – which is increasingly being handled in-house – in favour of contentious matters or risk management.
