Slightly more than 5,000 lawyer delegates attended this year's ABA conference - a considerable drop on recent annual events. Organisers blamed the slip in numbers on the remote venue of Honolulu. Nonetheless, the event is still the largest gathering of lawyers in the world, attracting bar leaders from all of the major international jurisdictions. Next year's conference is scheduled to return to San Francisco, where it was held most recently two years ago. Later this year, the ABA is hosting a special conference on the rule of law in advance of the annual International Bar Association conference in Chicago.