The London-based International Bar Association – which already has offices in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates – announced the opening yesterday of a Seoul office. The organisation’s president, leading Japanese lawyer Akira Kawamura, who is a partner at Tokyo-based law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, said the IBA had ‘a rich history in Asia’ and that the new office would fulfil ‘part of the long-term strategy of the association’.

Leading figures

The opening ceremony attracted top-flight legal figures, including South Korea’s Justice Minister, Kwon Jae-Jin, and the deputy minister from that department. Also on hand were the Mayor of Seoul, Park Won Soon, and the current and former presidents of the Korean Bar Association, Shin Young Moo and Kim Pyung Woo, respectively.
The President of the Seoul Bar Association, Oh Wook Hwan and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Yjumiko Ichige and the Vice Chairman of the International Committee of the Tokyo Bar Association, Eiji Yamahara, also attended.

Rocky road

According to the IBA, the Asia office will ‘work closely with bar associations in its regions to host quality conferences and events’ – with a kick-off event being a jointly-organised seminar with the Korean Bar Association and the Seoul Metropolitan Government scheduled for early next year.
The IBA has had a rocky experience with its regional offices. Several years ago, it followed its first opening in Sao Paulo with a second office in Dubai, where the organisation held its annual conference last year. However, that event was blighted by tussles with the hypersensitive local authorities, which objected several of the human rights and freedom of speech-orientated subjects on the conference agenda.