World Clout: new chief claims working primarily in English is a 'huge advantage'


The new president of the International Bar Association (IBA) has refuted suggestions that his organisation is dominated by US and English lawyers, while at the same time maintaining that it is the dominant force for legal practitioners around the world.



Speaking exclusively to the Gazette last week, Spanish lawyer Fernando Pombo threw down a challenge to competing international lawyer organisations, saying that 'no other organisation apart from the IBA has the educational skills, the number of members and the quality of meetings'.



Mr Pombo's message will strike a chord with the other large global grouping, the Union International des Avocats (UIA), especially as the remarks come from a continental Europe practitioner. Historically, the two rival organisations have split along common law and civil law grounds.



Mr Pombo &150; who took over at the IBA helm from City solicitor Francis Neate last month &150; pointed out that he was a member of both organisations. But the difficult message for the UIA was that the IBA had the 'huge advantage' of working primarily in English. However, the incoming president sounded a conciliatory note, saying that during his tenure, the IBA would attempt to 'strengthen our relationships with other organisations, both regional and regulatory. But we are the global voice of the legal profession. We are the organisation that matters for individual lawyers, for bars and for corporate counsel'.



The 63-year-old Mr Pombo is the founder and senior partner of Madrid-based law firm Gomez-Acebo & Pombo. He countered claims that the 190-country IBA is overly-influenced by Anglo-US interests, pointing out that his vice-president is a Mexico-born lawyer practising in Venezuela, the organisation's secretary-general is from Japan and one chairman of the two main divisions is from the Czech Republic. 'There may well be a perception that the IBA is dominated by US and English lawyers, but it is very far from the reality,' he maintained.



On one point Mr Pombo is adamant &150; the IBA is not a political organisation. That firm diplomatic stance means that he straddles the fence over the contentious issue of whether the evolving legal landscape in England and Wales &150; presenting the likelihood of outside investment in law firms &150; might cause City-based practices difficulties abroad. 'The debate over the implications of that model in English firms will continue; it is a huge debate in Europe already and I imagine it will become one in other parts of the world.'



Perhaps understandably for someone who was a law professor at Madrid University in the mid-1970s, Mr Pombo has placed legal education at the top of his two-year agenda as president. 'In the past, there has not been enough emphasis on what our societies need for our lawyers to learn,' he said, pointing to the association's on-going plans to launch an international LLM distance learning course &150; offered in conjunction with the College of Law &150; as a means of rectifying that problem.



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Jonathan Ames