LAWorld News

LAWorld´s 17th Annual Conference – Zurich 2013

LAWorld’s 17th Annual Conference was held in Switzerland this May and host Oliver Gnehm from law firm Bader Gnehm & Partner, LAWorld’s member for Zurich and Bern, was delighted to welcome so many friends to his country.

Steve Ng, LAWorld’s Chair, greeted sixty six delegates, representing almost 40 member firms and several guest firms. By comparison, last year in Rio we had 45 delegates, which was our highest attendance until Zurich. Increasing attendance shows the value and enjoyment our members get from attending our annual conference.  Delegates travelled from seven continents to attend this year.  Steve thanked Michael Bader and Oliver for their considerable and invaluable support in organising such a high profiled LAWorld Annual Conference.

Steve told conference that he believes “friendship and trust” are the keys to the success of LAWorld – law is jurisdictional but lawyers are not and friendship and trust binds us all together.

Five new member firms were attending their first AGM (Esbjerg, Frankfurt am Main, Durban, Warsaw, Washington DC). LAWorld reached a milestone during this year with fifty members which has already been surpassed to fifty two with the addition of members from Washington DC and, imminently, Bratislava.

Several Chinese lawyers from LAWorld’s associate China network called Yantzejiang Legal Network (YLN) joined the meeting and their participation was much appreciated.  Their new website in English is available here: http://www.chinalegalnetwork.com/

LAWorld annual conferences combine formal business and legal conference sessions with social and cultural events which encourage business networking and getting to know each other opportunities. Social highlights this year included a meeting with Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA at the impressive FIFA headquarters, a talk by Dr Jacob Kellenberger, former President of the International Committee of The Red Cross and a wonderful evening at elegant Clouds Restaurant to support Bader Gnehm’s 25th anniversary celebrations which included sounds from a fabulous jazz trio until very late.

A selection of photographic memories of this conference are available for viewing on the Gallery Section of the website.