The Yanks are coming

The forthcoming ABA 2000 conference will see thousands of us lawyers descend on London for a packed programme of seminars and social events.

Sue Allen looks ahead to the invasion

They're over here again...

slightly more than 3,000 US lawyers will come to London for the American Bar Association (ABA) 2000 conference this month.For those in any doubt about the impact of this friendly invasion, legend has it that the last time the ABA came to London in 1985, Harrods was moved to postpone its summer sale to coincide with their arrival.Despite news earlier this year that first lady Hillary Clinton had pulled out of the conference, the list of those attending and speaking is a roll call of the legal great and good from both sides of the Atlantic.

From the US, there are attorney-general Janet Reno, secretary of state Madeleine Albright and secretary of health and human services Donna Shalala.

They will join British foreign secretary Robin Cook, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, and the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, at events during the week.ABA 2000 marks the association's fifth visit to London - the first joint meeting was held here in 1924.

The US leg of the association's split-venue conference is taking place in New York this week.

The meeting has attracted around 8,300 delegates staying in 22 hotels who can attend more than 1,900 meetings and events.The London conference, which runs from the 15 to 20 July, promises much both socially and through a packed timetable of nearly 100 practice group and plenary sessions.

The sessions have been designed with UK/US legal themes in mind to cover everything from cyberspace jurisdictions to class actions.The chairwoman of the ABA planning committee for London, Roberta Cooper Ramo, describes the programme of events as the 'most high quality and broad ranging' the association had ever assembled.

'There is a wonderful combination of thought-provoking issues and practical approaches brought together in the sessions,' she says.Plenary events during the week include 'Common law/common values/common rights', which takes a historical look at common law rights and heritage and its introduction to emerging nations through a moderated panel discussion led by Harvard professor of law Arthur R Miller.

Other members of the panel are High Court judge the honourable Dame Mary Arden, Lord Peter Goldsmith QC and Anthony Kennedy, associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Additional plenary events include: 'Out of the box', where a panel of judges, barristers and academics will test three radical new formats for legal training; 'Products over the pond', which will see US and UK advocates presenting a mock trial considering issues of product liability and procedure; and 'ADR in the UK and the US', which will give a comparative analysis of alternative dispute resolution.Sessions will also look at the amalgamation of transnational firms and their effect on the delivery of legal services, the role of sole and small practitioners compared with that of global law firms, the future of multi- disciplinary practices, the future of the jury system in the US and UK, the prosecution of war criminals, and when love in a law firm turns to sexual harrassment.

The imaginatively titled session 'The marital woes of King Henry VIII' will call on speakers such as Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the Family Division, and Judge Peggy Quince of the Florida Supreme Court to look at the fates of Henry's wives against a backdrop of modern family law.ABA sections and divisions sessions venture into areas including the pitfalls of negotiating transatlantic mergers, the use of technology in court rooms, differences between US and UK property laws, promotion of pro bono work, and insurance and reinsurance of e-commerce claims.On the social side, the six-day event kicks off on 15 July with a rededication of the ABA memorial to the Magna Carta at Runnymede, erected in 1957.

Making full use of London's historic venues, the ABA has booked into the Royal Albert Hall to hold its opening event and ABA president William Paul will hold his reception at the Tower of London.The Bar and the Law Society are jointly hosting the conference.

Neil Morrison, the Bar Council's chief executive, says there is an 'immensely exciting' programme of events which will be of value to US and UK lawyers because of their countries' shared common law roots.

'The litigation and international sections will appeal because there is a lot of common interest in the way things are litigated and resolved in the US and here, and lawyers are always looking for ways to improve procedures and outcomes,' Mr Morrison says.Ann Frazer, Law Society international policy executive for the Americas and Middle East, says alongside substantive plenary and sections sessions, the meeting will provide lawyers, judges and academics with a 'a unique opportunity to network with US counterparts'.Clifford Chance solicitor Judith Mayhew, who was recently appointed financial and business advisor to the new London mayor, Ken Livingstone, is speaking at a seminar looking at quality of life issues for lawyers.

She says she hopes lawyers can 'exchange best practice and share common problems' as a result.The role of multi-disciplinary practice (MDPs), which looks likely to preoccupy the majority of the ABA's decision-making body in New York, will also provide the backdrop for a number of sessions.

By the time the London event rolls round, the ABA's crucial decision on whether it will open the doors to MDPs should be known, provided the decision is not put off for a second year.l For information on registering for ABA 2000, tel: 020 8957 5056, www.abanet.org/annual/2000.