This years conference will cover a wide range of topics associated with business and human rights including Modern Slavery, trafficking, a treaty on business and human rights, supply chains and accountability as well as lawyers and the responsibility to respect.

Background:

In July 2013 the Law Society of England and Wales set up a practitioners’ advisory group to consult on business and human rights. In doing so, it has become the first bar association in the world to look at how the legal services sector practically translates the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Guiding Principles or UNGPs, which were adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2011, clarify the role and responsibilities of states, companies and other social actors in respect of corporate human rights impacts.

It is the Law Society’s firm belief that lawyers play a special role in upholding the rule of law, which is critical to the ability of companies to respect human rights.

Book now

About the event:

This conference will cover a wide range of topics associated with business and human rights including Modern Slavery, Litigating the Global case and whether a treaty on business and human rights is the way forward?

This conference enables legal practitioners, judges, scholars, policy-makers and community representatives to exchange views, and consider the impact of human rights principles on business. It offers a mixture of keynote addresses and workshops, as well as informal opportunities to exchange ideas and build relationships.

Book now

Programme:

09.00 - 09.25 Registration and refreshments

09.25 - 09.30 Welcome

Andrew Caplen, President of The Law Society

09.30 - 09.45 Keynote

Robert Buckland QC MP - Solicitor General

09.45 - 11.00 Plenary 1: Overview Business and Human Rights

Chair:

  • Stephen Grosz QC (Hon), Chair of the Law Society Human Rights Committee

Speakers:

  • Peter Frankental, Economic Relations Programme Director Amnesty International UK
  • Nicole Bigby, Partner - Director of Risk at Berwin Leighton Paisner
  • Professor Sheldon Leader, Director, Essex Business and Human Rights Project
  • Gabbi Loedolff, Lush Cosmetics

11.00 - 11.30 Refreshment break

11.30 - 12.45 Breakout session A:

A1: Treaty on business and human rights

Chair:

  • Marjon Esfandiary, member Law Society Human Rights Committee

Speakers:

  • Chris Esdaile, Leigh Day
  • Courtenay Barklem, partner, McCue & Parnters, member of Law Society Human Rights Committee
  • Margaret Wachenfeld, Director of Research and Legal Affairs, Institute for Human Rights and Business

A2: Are international remedies accessible?

Chair :

  • Anthony Robinson, member of Law Society Human Rights Committee

Speakers:

  • Stephane Brabant, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills Paris LLP
  • Professor Mary Footer, Professor of International Economic Law, University of Nottingham Law School
  • Peter Frankental, Economic Relations Programme Director Amnesty International UK

A3: Supply chain: Responsibility and Accountability

Chair :

  • Andrew Denny, Partner, Allen & Overy LLP

Speakers

  • Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve’s death penalty team and founder of its Stop the Lethal Injection Project
  • Colleen Theron, Director, Finance against Trafficking
  • Louise Moore, partner, Hogan Lovells

12.45 - 13.45 Lunch

13.45 - 14.00 Keynote address

Anthony Steen, Chairman, Human Trafficking Foundation

14.00 - 15.30 Plenary 2: UK business and human rights

Chair:

  • Robert Heslett

Speakers:

  • Dr Aidan McQuade, Director, Anti-Slavery International
  • Stephen Lowe, FCO
  • Rae Lindsay, Partner, Clifford Chance and member of BHRAG
  • Shanta Martin, Partner, Leigh Day, member of Law Society Human Rights Committee

15.30 - 15.50 Refreshments

15.50 - 16.50 Breakout sessions B:

B1: Access to remedy post LASPO

Chair:

  • Richard Miller, Head of Legal Aid, The Law Society

Speakers:

  • Steve Hynes, Director of the Legal Action Group
  • Roger Smith
  • Carol Storer, director, Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG)

B2: Modern Slavery

Chair:

  • Alastair Logan, Member of the Law Society human rights committee

Speakers:

  • Dr Aidan McQuade, Director, Anti-Slavery International
  • David Hammond, founder of the “Human Rights at Sea” International Initiative, Barrister 9 Bedford Row International
  • Parosha Chandran, human rights barrister and Modern Slavery expert at 1 Pump Court Chambers, London

B3: Lawyers and the Responsibility to Respect

Chair

  • Professor Sara Chandler,  member of Law Society Human Rights Committee

Speakers:

  • Ruby Sandhu, Lawyer, Facilitator & Mediator on CSR & Sustainability, RS Collaboration
  • Daniel Carey, Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors
  • Andrea Saldarriaga, lead, Investment and Human Rights Progect, LSE

 

16.50 - 17.00 Closing Keynote

Richard Howitt MEP, European Parliament Rapporteur on Corporate Social Responsibility

17.00 - 17.10 Closing remarks

Jonathan Smither, Vice President of The Law Society

 

*Please note programme may be subject to change.

 Book now

Who should attend? 

Legal practitioners, academics and policy-makers with an interest in human rights. The event is also recommended to lawyers and students who have a general interest in these areas and want to know more.