“Advocacy, past, present and future – Constant values for a modern Bar” is the theme for this year’s ICAB conference, to be held in London in June. Desmond Browne QC offers a glimpse of what is in store.
Every two years the International Council of Advocates and Barristers (“ICAB”) organises a conference in a different city around the globe. ICAB, currently co-chaired by Stephen Hockman QC and Noelle McGrenara QC of Belfast, is an organisation formed by the Bar Associations in those jurisdictions where there is an independent Referral Bar. Past conferences have been held in places as far apart as Edinburgh and Cape Town, and as Dublin and Hong Kong. The memorable fifth World Bar Conference was held in Sydney over Easter 2010. Little did I think, as I swallowed white wine and oysters at the opening reception on the terrace of the Opera House, that the next conference would be in London and I would end up holding the short straw of being the programme’s organiser.