The International Law Section Continues Its Dynamic Relationship With Foreign Bar Associations Through Friendship Agreements and Conferences

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: Richard Bainter

THE INTERNATIONAL LAW SECTION CONTINUES ITS DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP WITH FOREIGN BAR ASSOCIATIONS THROUGH FRIENDSHIP AGREEMENTS AND CONFERENCES

Richard Bainter

Co-Chair, ILS Foreign Relations Committee

The International Law Section welcomed five foreign delegations to the first Annual Meeting of the California Lawyers Association (CLA) in September 2018. Attorneys from France, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam traveled to San Diego to attend CLA Meeting programs, share best practices and network with their California colleagues.

The ILS had long-standing relationships with many foreign bars under the State Bar of California, and those relationships transferred with the ILS to the new CLA during the reorganization this year. The first Annual Meeting of the CLA provided an opportunity for the ILS to formally renew several of those relationships and to establish new relationships through signing updated Friendship Agreements between the ILS/CLA and foreign partners.

Representatives from the Marseille Bar, the Malaysian Bar, the Osaka Bar, Asociacion Nacional de Abogados de Empresa, Mexico (ANADE) and the Vietnam Lawyers Commercial Arbitration Centre made the trip to San Diego.

The foreign attorneys were welcomed to San Diego by ILS Co-Chairs, Alexandra Darraby and Michael Newman, at a reception before the Annual Meeting began, generously sponsored by: Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek; Maldanado Myers LLP; Sempra Energy; and Franco Serafini.

Many of the foreign visitors enjoyed a cruise on San Diego Bay with members of the ILS and all were welcomed and recognized at the Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the Year Award ceremony and dinner that followed. Leaders of the foreign delegations also attended and made presentations about their respective Bars at the ILS Executive Committee meeting, where the ILS Co-Chairs presented them with certificates of appreciation and gifts were exchanged.

This is the third year that the ILS has received representatives from Vietnam. The Vietnam Lawyers Association sent a delegation to Los Angeles in 2016 and another delegation attended the annual conference of the State Bar of California in 2017. This year's delegates represented both the Vietnam Lawyers Commercial Arbitration Centre and the Ho Chi Minh City Commercial Arbitration Association. A visit by ILS members to Vietnam is proposed.

The Malaysian Bar, making its first visit to the U.S., took the opportunity to sign its first American Friendship Agreement with the ILS...