Thoughts on 2007 IBA Annual Meeting in Singapore
by Brendon Carr
Some thoughts on my attendance at the International Bar Association (IBA) annual meeting in Singapore last week (October 14-19, 2007):
This organization meets in places that are too good. This should be stopped. Each time I travel to an IBA annual meeting I feel like junking my life in Seoul and moving off to whichever place I just returned from. Next year it’s in Buenos Aires, which looks so fabulous in the pictures that I’m seriously thinking about skipping it lest I hang myself when I get back here to humdrum Seoul. When is the meeting in Terre Haute? That’s one which I could attend and feel good about going back to Seoul.
Hotels should not be charging guests for Internet access in 2007. It’s like having water or electricity in the room—a basic service. Getting ripped US$20 a day, while it won’t break the bank, is annoying as hell. As annoying as the $7.50 Pepsis in the in-room fridge. As annoying as $3.50 a page photocopying in the business center. Similarly, the IBA should have FREE wireless access for attendees in any conference center. If free wireless is not available, go somewhere it is. But I somehow doubt that Buenos Aires will have free wireless all over the place.
The IBA is a sausage festival: More than 80% of the attendees seem to be male. Some bring their wives, but most of us are flying solo. Needless to say, the hotel lobbies had a suspicious number of porn-star hot young women milling about, yet curiously, none of these women could be found in the conference venue itself. That’s not to say there weren’t a bunch of attractive women around at the lawyers’ conference, but comparatively fewer of them wore neon-pink fishnet stockings.
This conference may not be the best place for software vendors like Lexis/Nexis to exhibit. The demographics are all wrong—the average IBA attendee appears to be at least 50 years old, with a lot of them being quite a bit older. Very few lawyers of that age use much in the way of software. A defibrillator vendor could do a good business at the IBA, though (see above re: all the young women).
If you don’t know how to (i) shut off the Windows screen saver or power-saving functions; (ii) switch between the laptop’s built-in screen and external video output; or (iii) step back one slide—DON’T use Powerpoint! Seeing these guys fumble around with the computer like it’s the first time they’ve seen one is just sad. And seeing as how the balky laptops are always Dells using Windows, the fumble factor always gives me pleasure that I have chosen to use a Macintosh.
Speakers: PLEASE stop reading me your paper! Especially if you’ve handed the paper out. I can read silently faster than your lips can move—this makes me impatient and antsy. Most of you are charming and intelligent when answering questions extemporaneously. Spend more time doing that, and less on looking down at your paper on the podium.
The conference dinners/lunches used to be a lot of fun, but these days the number of attendees is so large (over 4000 this year, a new record) that many committees lack the intimacy of just a few years ago. In the future I think I’ll be dropping some of these functions to concentrate on the committees in which I’ve been most active. There are always enough free receptions to attend anyway.
In fact, I think our firm Hwang Mok Park ought to sponsor one of these receptions in Buenos Aires next year. We sponsor a monthly reception for the most colorful group of drunks here in Seoul, so why not for a select group of the world’s best commercial lawyers?
Bring enough business cards! There were a lot of interesting people I met later in the week who ran out of cards, leaving us unable to exchange. For a week of this conference you’ll need at least 300 cards if you’re diligent about being out and about. Anyway, if 300 is too many you can always take them back home.
If your firm will let you, make a special design of your card for attendance at the IBA. I noticed people hand-writing some of the additional details, such as “IBA 2007” and practice areas on my card. Next year my card will have this information pre-printed. In this regard I am inspired by Ronnie Fox of Fox Lawyers in London, whose card was a fold-out affair with a color photo of his handsome visage and a narrative description of his firm and practice specialties.
The keynote speaker and the closing ceremony are always unspeakably boring to me. This year we had Lee Kuan Yew kick off the conference. Guess what? He’s a genius. I know, because he told us again and again. Similarly, the closing ceremony is always too self-congratulatory for my taste. I already know I’m awesome, and it’s not because I came to the IBA.
A week-long annual meeting is simply too long. While my laptop kept me in touch with work during the week (alas), by Wednesday night (the fourth night, after the Sunday-night welcoming party) my feet hurt and I was tired of explaining again and again how I’m not a Korean, but I live in Korea.
For some reason, the Korean lawyers who travel to the annual meeting use it as an opportunity to get together for drinks, have dinner together, play golf together, and otherwise generally do all the same things they could have done in Seoul. They don’t go to meet the rest of the world. My partner Doil was torn between going to an international law firm’s reception and one he was invited to by the Korean Bar Association. I asked him, “Who’s going to be there?” When he replied that the invitation list for the KBA’s reception was Korean lawyers only (I’m not invited), no foreign lawyers, no corporate counsel, nobody from another country, my response was ”Exactly!”. Doil’s no dummy: We ended up going to the other function.
Finally, for the myriad young lawyers I met at this conference who are wondering whether anyone is interested to hear them speak about conditions in Ghana or Kazakstan or Vietnam or Guyana: We are! Please step forward and agree to speak on the panels. This conference always has a surplus of English lawyers telling us about the position in the UK on one topic or another—but we were in Asia, and there were damn few Asian lawyers who deigned to come.
Don’t be afraid that you’re not experienced enough, or senior enough, or whatever enough. In most cases, you’re not (yet)—we all know and accept that. None of us were all that expert early on in our careers either. But you have one thing over the rest of us: You live in your country, practice its laws, and you know a hell of a lot more about the law and legal practice in Lower Crapistan than anyone else who will be in the room. Anyone who does know more than you, and uses that to make you look foolish in front of the crowd—that guy will be viewed as the jerk, not you. And anyway, even if you’re terrible—as I mention above—there are enough sucky speakers on the panels anyway that one more probably won’t hurt. So take a chance!
Want to know the definition of an “expert”? Someone who knows more than you. Be this group’s expert on the laws of your country, and reap the benefits.
Speakers do not have to pay for the conference fee, and can attend all functions on the day of their panel. To be truthful with you, if I saw a young lawyer with a “Monday” badge sitting in on a Tuesday session she didn’t pay for, I wouldn’t be interested to rat her out. As I mentioned above, a week is too long anyway—come and speak on a panel then skedaddle on home. Your cost will be much more manageable that way—a plane ticket, $20 a day in spending money, and a night or two in the hotel. You don’t have to stay in a fancy hotel, either, although it sure is nice (but remember the $7.50 Pepsis).
This conference is always sold out. This year, I registered at the last minute and couldn’t get the social function tickets I wanted, and finding a hotel was hairy. As Dan Hull’s What About Clients? blog puts it, “If you are a business lawyer who works internationally, and you like different kinds of humans, it’s a must to go to an annual IBA meeting once every two or three years.” Except I would say go every year. Book early to avoid disappointment, or sleep on a bench at the bus terminal!
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You hit on some good stuff here:
I’ve read about these women appearing at the Lotte Hotel here in Seoul, but darn it, whenever I am there they are not.
In the Presentations program that I teach to Korean government officials, we don’t allow PowerPoint or reading of papers for just this reason. We focus on making a connection with the audience—by making the presentation at least somewhat interactive, by making eye contact, by engaging the audience through questions, requests, etc.
Ditto with me. And Koreans have a lot of these kinds of ceremonies.
Describes Korean travellers’ habits to a “T.” I travel to the Philippines regularly, and the flights both ways are full of Koreans. Yet I don’t think I’ve once seen a Korean smile at a Filipino or engage a native in a friendly, off-the-cuff conversation. It’s somewhat embarrassing. Of course some of it has to do with Koreans only recently being allowed to travel overseas, and with the way Koreans don’t tend to approach strangers, but still ...
Exactly. If they don’t get respect from Mr. Senior back home, and if their input is not regularly asked for in meetings, they may be hesitant to express themselves at an international conference.
The fact that these quibbles come from the IBA, as “international” a conference as you’ll find (despite the dominance of English-speaking European and American lawyers), goes to show you that human frailty is not unique to Korea. My only Korea-focused complaint is not really a complaint at all—it’s good for me and Doil that the other Korean lawyers hide out from the conference!
Mr. Carr:
My former boss went to this IBA Conference and then on to China. Your post gave me a sense of what this kind of lawyer socializing looks like from the inside. I like your suggestion for young lawyers to step up and out to speak.
As a side note, at SMU Law, there are quite a number of Korean LLM and J.D. students. I’m definitely gonna assure them great reading materials on Korean law if they visit your blog.
Definitely, Brad, you would be welcome at the IBA. John Vernon knows where to go to volunteer—ask him. I was looking for John this year but missed him. One of the things I wanted to do was congratulate him on finding you.
I just organized an international conference in Buenos Aires (I am Argentine) for lawyers at a 5 star hotel and we had free internet access!
Cesar, if we have free internet access at the IBA it will merely cement BA’s status as a paradise.