Final Programme - International Bar Association

Working sessions – Monday
80
‘Is the storm over?’ – the evolving liabilities
of financial institutions
Presented by the Financial Services Section.
Session Co-Chairs
Benoît Feron NautaDutilh, Brussels, Belgium; SIRC Liaison Officer,
Banking Law Committee
Liam Flynn Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland
The global financial crisis and its aftermath have exposed weaknesses
in the management of legal risks by financial institutions. Unforeseen
liabilities have resulted and banks, insurers and securities firms have
incurred significant time and expense in dealing with these. Going
forward, financial firms must strengthen their legal risk and liability
management practices, put in place new procedures and even consider
avoiding areas of activity with high potential to lead to liability.
This panel will discuss the grounds on which financial firms have been
subject to liability claims following the crisis. In some cases, claims have
been made for negligent, or even fraudulent, structuring of CDO or
CLO-type investment products. In others the sales practices adopted by
financial firms when selling products to retail and wholesale investors
have been attacked. Delinquent borrowers in collapsed property
markets have more strenuously resisted banks’ attempts to enforce
their security and argued that the banks themselves are partially
responsible for losses. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers, firms
were exposed to unprecedented litigation under derivative contracts,
which has exposed ambiguities in the market standard master
agreements. Accounting errors and trading losses have led to an
increase in investor claims under US and other securities laws.
The panel will review liability exposures that have occurred and
consider how these new and increased liability exposures can be
best managed by financial firms going forward. Insurance is an
important risk and liability mitigation tool and the panel will discuss
the notification and coverage issues. Firms risk management practices
will also need to improve and the panel will look at developments in
this area.
This panel will complement the joint Litigation/ Banking session – ‘Class
actions or mass actions – the experience of litigators and financial
institutions’, taking place on Thursday 4 October, which will analyse the
litigation experience regarding these liability issues and the resulting
lessons to be learned from the events of the last five years.
Speakers
Roddy Bourke McCann FitzGerald, Dublin, Ireland
Christoph Graber Prager Dreyfuss, Zurich, Switzerland; Senior Vice-
Chair, Insurance Committee
Thomas Mannsdorfer ANV Underwriting, Barcelona, Spain
Annette Nazareth Davis Polk and Wardwell, Washington DC, USA
Coffee and tea breaks will be held between 1100 – 1130 and
1600 – 1630. To accommodate the flow of delegates through
the Conference Centre please note the closest coffee/tea
stations to this session are in the Foyer of Levels 2 and 3.
WICKLOW HALL 2B, LEVEL 2
Market demand – a key driver of the
multidisciplinary approach to legal services
Joint session with the Law Firm Management Committee and the
Multidisciplinary Practices Committee.
Session Co-Chairs
Alain Chedal Landwell & Associés, Paris, France; Secretary,
Multidisciplinary Practices Committee
Herman J Knott Luther, Cologne, Germany; Secretary, Law Firm
Management Committee
General counsel and their companies are more and more
contemplating legal services within a multidisciplinary context and
often require a one-stop shop.
The purpose of this session is to build a practical case where a client,
the general counsel of a large group, requires assistance in view of
a major group carve-out reorganisation. The bidding process will be
built on an engagement letter, a document reflecting the various
constraints in a selected number of countries.
The practical case is structured in order to solicit from the legal
profession a comprehensive offer for services, which shall include:
• corporate services;
• valuation and financial services;
• social planning;
• tax planning; and
• implementation.
The session will be organised by a panel of IBA multi-practice
representatives illustrating their respective countries’ constraints and
solutions in order to achieve a successful and competitive bid.
Speakers
Nicolás Herrera Guyer & Regules, Montevideo, Uruguay
Linfei Liu Jun He Law Firm, Beijing, China
Paul Olney Slaughter & May, London, England
Michael Roch KermaPartners, London, England
Margaret Stack A&L Goodbody, Dublin, Ireland
Coffee and tea breaks will be held between 1100 – 1130 and
1600 – 1630. To accommodate the flow of delegates through
the Conference Centre please note the closest coffee/tea
station to this session is in The Forum on Ground Level.
LIFFEY HALL 1, LEVEL 1
Mediator by day, arbitrator by night. So you
want to be an international adjudicator?
Joint session with the Arbitration Committee and the Mediation
Committee.
Session Co-Chairs
Babak Barin Barin Avocats, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Chair,
Mediation Committee
Lawrence S Schaner Jenner & Block, Chicago, Illinois, USA; Vice-
Chair, Arbitration Committee
This session will consider hybrid dispute resolution clauses and their
application from both common law and civil law perspectives. Can
arbitrators change hat in the middle of proceedings and become
mediators? Can they then revert to their initial role and carry on with
proceedings if the matter is not settled? What about mediators? Can
they agree to become arbitrators after having participated in the
proceedings as mediator? Does international public policy play a role
in all this? If so, what does it say?
Speakers
Mark Appel International Centre for Dispute Resolution, Dublin,
Ireland
Martin Bernet Schellenberg Wittmer, Zurich, Switzerland
John J Buckley Jr Williams & Connolly, Washington DC, USA
Teresa Cheng Des Voeux Chambers, Hong Kong SAR
Carole Malinvaud Gide Loyrette Nouel, Paris, France
Hiroyuki Tezuka Nishimura & Asahi, Tokyo, Japan
Gerhard Wegan Gleiss Lutz, Stuttgart, Germany
Alvin Yeo WongPartnership, Singapore; Vice-Chair, Arbitration
Committee
Coffee and tea breaks will be held between 1100 – 1130 and
1600 – 1630. To accommodate the flow of delegates through
the Conference Centre please note the closest coffee/tea
station to this session is in The Forum on Ground Level.
LIFFEY HALL 2, LEVEL 1