IBA paper commits to tackling seven key issues

The seven most pressing challenges facing the legal profession over the next five years have been set out in a new document by the International Bar Association. The IBA is committing to providing thought leadership on the issues raised, and working to develop and promote common solutions.

The IBA Legal Agenda 2023-2028 forms one of IBA President Almudena Arpón de Mendívil Aldama’s presidential priorities for her 2023–2024 tenure. Agenda items have been selected from the three perspectives of substantive law developments, issues faced by the legal profession, and legal issues affecting society in general.

Its seven key areas are:

• artificial intelligence, which was consistently identified as the most important issue, in terms of substantive law developments, the challenges posed to the legal profession and to society as a whole;
• environmental, social and governance issues, which will have a substantial impact on law firms’ work for clients as well as on firms’ internal policies and structures in terms of female and ethnic inclusion;
• client and mandate acceptance, which poses increasing risk to law firms in terms of reputation, regulatory scrutiny and recruiting, especially for global firms practising in different jurisdictions, as pressure not to represent certain clients has diminished the independence of the legal profession;
• talent attraction and retention, a growing challenge to the current law business model because of different life priorities and the search for purpose by the younger generation;
• the perception of the profession, which remains low because the public too often has a negative view of lawyers;
• delivering legal advice across multiple jurisdictions – increasingly challenging due to the substantial number of divergent regulations applicable to the legal profession across the globe;
• promoting and defending the rule of law, which needs to be more actively promoted and protected by the legal profession.

Drawing on legal knowledge and expertise from all over the world, the IBA seeks to use the Agenda to raise awareness and instigate positive change on these issues, all of which are "at the intersection of President Arpón de Mendívil’s five core priorities".