Hopes that the world’s largest gathering of lawyers would return this year were dashed this morning when the organising body said any such event would be a shadow of its normal self. In a message to members, the International Bar Association announced the postponement of its annual conference, which had been due to take place in Paris this autumn. 

The IBA’s in-person annual conference will return next year in Miami - which had been scheduled to host last year’s event - while the Paris conference will now be held in 2023. 

Miami skyline

The IBA has postponed Miami and Paris events to 2022 and 2023

Source: iStock

In a statement, the London-headquartered IBA said: 'The postponement of in-person conferences in the past year has of course been very disappointing for all of us, and in recent weeks we have had to work to take another major step. It became very clear that, were we to try to hold our Paris annual conference this year, it would be a shadow of what an IBA Paris Conference could and should be, and that therefore we must postpone.

'We want to hold it when many thousands of us can be there with ease of travel from all countries, bringing the great diversity which is the hallmark of the IBA’s premier event, and when we can all enjoy the city at its best. We are delighted to say that the venues have been able to accommodate us for 2023, so that our sequence of annual conferences will now flow from Miami in 2022 to Paris the following year. Two truly wonderful cities for back-to-back annuals.'

More than 6,000 lawyers attended the IBA's last physical annual conference, in Seoul in 2019.