The International Bar Association Annual Conference 2026 is underway in Copenhagen, Denmark, bringing together lawyers, judges, Bar leaders, regulators, academics and law-firm executives for six days of discussions expected to shape major conversations affecting the global legal profession.
The conference runs from 4 to 9 October 2026, with the opening ceremony and welcome programme held on Sunday, October 4, before substantive working sessions commenced on Monday.
For the Nigerian legal profession, this year’s conference carries particular significance, with several Nigerian lawyers and judicial officers occupying prominent roles across the programme rather than participating merely as delegates.
Ajibade SAN takes young lawyers into leadership conversation
One of Monday’s early sessions featured Nigerian Senior Advocate Dr Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, Managing Partner of S.P.A. Ajibade & Co and Chair of the IBA’s Section on Public and Professional Interest.
Ajibade joined a Young Lawyers’ Committee breakfast titled “From legal expert to business partner: leadership skills.”
The session examined the transition from technical legal competence to broader commercial and professional leadership, including client development, personal credibility, strategic thinking and the skills required for lawyers to become trusted advisers and rainmakers.
Ajibade appeared alongside former IBA President Jaime Carey and Linda Fitz-Alan of the Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.
His participation is particularly relevant to Nigerian young lawyers as competition within legal practice increasingly requires practitioners to combine legal knowledge with relationship management, commercial awareness and international professional networks.
Ajibade will also chair a major IBA session later in the week titled “A profession under pressure,” examining regulatory pressure, ethics, accountability, artificial intelligence, public service, law-firm management and the challenges confronting younger lawyers entering a rapidly changing profession.
Mfon Usoro addresses internationalisation of legal practice
Also on Monday, Nigerian lawyer Mfon Usoro, Vice Chair of the IBA Bar Issues Commission’s International Trade in Legal Services Committee, is among speakers at a seminar focused specifically on helping lawyers from developing jurisdictions internationalise their practices.
The programme examines how lawyers can collaborate with practitioners and law firms in other jurisdictions, manage cross-border work and position their practices to participate in international flows of legal services.
For Nigerian firms seeking to compete for cross-border mandates, the session addresses an increasingly important issue: international legal work does not necessarily require abandoning a domestic practice, but it demands stronger networks, specialist expertise and understanding of how legal services move between jurisdictions.
Adeola Sunmola leads women-in-law discussion
Nigeria also has a prominent role in the IBA’s continuing conversation around women in leadership.
Adeola Sunmola, partner at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie and African Regional Forum Liaison Officer of the IBA Women Lawyers’ Committee, is chairing Monday’s session on what it takes for more women to reach leadership positions in law firms.
The session brings together senior practitioners from law firms across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America to examine structural, cultural and strategic barriers to gender parity at the highest levels of legal practice.
The subject carries additional relevance for Nigeria at a time when conversations around representation of women in senior law-firm management, Bar leadership, the Bench and professional institutions are receiving increasing attention.
Nigerian jurist joins AI-in-courtroom debate
The Nigerian presence will continue on Tuesday when Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, joins an IBA panel examining the use of artificial intelligence in courtrooms.
The session will confront questions that courts internationally are already beginning to face: whether judges should use generative AI, what level of disclosure should accompany lawyers’ use of AI, and how courts should respond to false citations or unreliable machine-generated legal material.
Justice Goodluck will speak alongside judges and advocates from Ireland, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China.
Another Nigerian lawyer, Modupeola Olusoga of Streamsowers & Köhn, is also scheduled to participate in a discussion on future-proofing small and medium-sized law firms in the AI age.
More than a networking conference
The Copenhagen conference is therefore shaping up as more than an annual gathering of international lawyers.
Its programme reaches into some of the questions likely to determine the future of legal practice: artificial intelligence, regulation of lawyers, ethical pressures, gender inclusion, cross-border practice, geopolitical risk, professional wellbeing and the economic sustainability of law firms.
For Nigeria, the visibility of its lawyers and jurists across those conversations offers an opportunity not only for international representation but also for bringing global professional debates back into domestic legal practice.
The conference continues until Friday, October 9 at the Bella Center Copenhagen.
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