IBA no longer a talking shopINTERVIEW: executive director Mark Ellis outlines visionThe International Bar Association (IBA) has just done something uncharacteristic: it has taken a topical issue in this case the threat to the rule of law in Zimbabwe and actually done something about it.A few years ago, the IBA would have responded to such a crisis by sending a delegation to Peru to look at some other issue that hardlyanyone had heard of.But under its new executive director, Mark Ellis, it sent a high-powered mission to Zimbabwe which met President Robert Mugabe and less than a month later issued a report (see [2001] Gazette, 26 April, 6).If youre going to be relevant, you have to respond quickly to issues, says Mr Ellis, a US lawyer and the first non-Briton to hold the post.

The Zimbabwe mission is a model for what the IBA can do in the human rights arena.Making the IBA a global voice for lawyers rather than just the successful conferencing and networking organisation it has long been is a challenge for the man who for ten years ran the American Bar Associations central and eastern European law initiative.

Where Im interested in seeing the IBA move is to be on the cutting edge of important legal issues facing us today both inside and outside the profession, he says.It is not all human rights, he stresses, despite his extensive work in the field.

He points to work the IBA began before he joined on a global competition forum, aimed at harmonising merger regulations.Another way Mr Ellis plans to enhance the IBAs work globally is setting up a continuing legal education programme, which would both help local Bar associations in less developed countries train their lawyers, and offer all lawyers IBA-branded qualifications in certain practice areas.Mr Ellis also expresses support for an all-encompassing annual IBA conference, rather than the biennial event currently held with its three sections meeting separately in the middle years.The frustrating aspect of the IBA has long been that it has not made the best of its potential as a global leader of the profession on vital issues, whether it be the rule of law in Zimbabwe or cross-border commercial legal practice.

For me personally, the attraction of being at the IBA is to fulfil that potential, Mr Ellis says.

Thats my passion.

Its a tremendous voice and an unique voice in the world on these issues.Neil Rose