COMBAR AGM 2020 Report from the Chair Introduction 1. I am delighted to deliver this report at the AGM, the first to be held by Zoom. 2. 2019-2020 has been a busy year for COMBAR and I owe a great deal of thanks to my superb Officers, Executive Committee, the various sub-committees and Junior COMBAR. Details of all those involved are set out in the Annex to this Report. COMBAR would not function, of course, without its wonderful administrators, Veronica Kendall and Alison Tighe. My thanks to each of them and to Nick Feeny, COMBAR’s accountant. 3. In 2019 COMBAR celebrated its 30th Anniversary, marked with a wonderful dinner on 5 November 2019. The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Burnett, kindly spoke at the event. The event was also attended by the Master of the Rolls, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, the Chancellor, the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, Lords Sumption, Hamblen and Leggatt, Lord Justice Flaux (the new supervising Lord Justice of the Commercial Court) as well as most of the Commercial Court judges, Financial List (ChD) Judges and a large number of Court of Appeal judges. COMBAR was also delighted to welcome former Chairs and Officers of COMBAR and many members, as well as Honorary Overseas Members. 4. As I said at that dinner, COMBAR’s work over the last 30 years has been invaluable in representing and advocating for the commercial bar, opening up the commercial bar to individuals from all walks of life, developing its international connections and continuing to forge a strong and effective working relationship between the commercial bar and the judiciary. COMBAR has continued that work over this last year adapting, as it must, to the times. 5. COMBAR’s work and activities are set out in this Report, to which many members of the Executive Committee have contributed. I wanted to highlight a few aspects: 5.1. Covid-19. As members will be all too aware, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how court hearings have been conducted and, more generally, on members’ practices. COMBAR has undertaken a significant amount of work for 1 its members on matters arising out of the pandemic, and in particular, has devoted considerable time to consulting, preparing and revising detailed guidance on remote hearings, as well as consulting more widely on the impact of the pandemic. Many thanks indeed to Alex Gunning QC and those assisting him for their hard work producing such excellent remote hearing guidance in a very short timeframe. 5.2. COMBAR is also conscious of the devastating effect of the pandemic on the criminal bar: we are all one bar and in support of our fellow barristers at the criminal bar, COMBAR (like the Chancery Bar Association) made a substantial donation to the Barristers’ Benevolent Association Covid-19 appeal. 5.3. Education programme. COMBAR has continued its education programme of talks and seminars given by senior members of the judiciary and leading practitioners. Highlights included, amongst many others, COMBAR’s Annual Lecture on 12 November 2019 given by Sir Geoffrey Vos C on Future proofing for commercial lawyers in an unpredictable world. Following the Covid-19 pandemic COMBAR has hosted a number of well-attended online talks and seminars. This included Professor Ewan McKendrick’s online talk on Frustration and Force Majeure held on 12 May 2020, which was attended by 270 COMBAR members. A full list of seminars hosted is set out below. Many thanks to James Leabeater QC and Emma Jones for organising such a fantastic education programme. 5.4. Consultations. Over the last year COMBAR has carried out extensive consultation work and membership surveys, including in relation to the Disclosure Pilot and the Witness Statement Working Group. COMBAR has also responded to consultations in relation to many other matters. My thanks to Andrew George QC (Chair of Consultations) and all involved in contributing to these consultations, a process which involves a huge amount of work but which is so important to ensuring that the views of COMBAR’s membership are communicated to the relevant decision makers. 5.5. Equality and Diversity. COMBAR remains committed to supporting all its members regardless of race, gender, religion, background or disability, as well as actively encouraging the recruitment of exceptional individuals from all walks of life to the profession and in particular from under-represented groups. To this end, 2 COMBAR has carried out a detailed and extensive programme of Equality and Diversity (“E&D”) activities, with the objective of supporting both existing practitioners and encouraging recruitment and access to the commercial bar. 5.6. Amongst many other initiatives, COMBAR continues to fund scholarship schemes supporting access to the commercial bar for individuals from under-represented backgrounds, as well as organising, attending and supporting many outreach initiatives. I am indebted to Ruth Hosking and her sub-committee for their commitment and hard work in this enormously important field. 5.7. Following the success of the E&D committee’s work, including in relation to the recruitment and support of talented women at the Commercial Bar, this year COMBAR has also established a BAME sub-committee to support and enhance BAME inclusion, participation and progression at the commercial bar, and promote those aims. As set out below, several excellent initiatives are already underway. I am grateful to Anne Jeavons and Charlotte Tan and their sub-committee for establishing and developing these initiatives. 5.8. Equally important is COMBAR’s commitment to social mobility - and again a number of initiatives are underway. 5.9. Pro bono work. Many of COMBAR’s members carry out extensive pro bono work. COMBAR actively supports this. On 13 January 2020, COMBAR and Advocate together launched a bespoke pro bono scheme to support litigants in person in the London Circuit Commercial Court. The initiative for the scheme came from Waksman J (when he was the Judge in Charge of the London Mercantile Court, the forerunner of the London Circuit Commercial Court) and it was implemented by his successor, HHJ Pelling QC. A vast number of COMBAR members have already volunteered to support this scheme, and I am delighted to announce that the scheme will soon be extended to the Commercial Court. Thank you to David Mumford QC, Adam Kramer and Niamh Cleary for assisting with this excellent new project. 5.10. International work and events. The work of COMBAR’s busy international committee has continued. This has included, amongst other things, meetings and engagement with the British government in connection with post-Brexit trade 3 policy and judicial co-operation (amongst other things, COMBAR was instrumental in making the case for the UK’s post-Brexit accession to the Lugano Convention). COMBAR also organised a number of international events, including its third and very successful Roundtable event in India in September 2019. International work is a cornerstone of COMBAR’s activities and I am very grateful to Henry King QC (International Chair), David Joseph QC and Charles Bear QC (Joint Chairs of the India sub-committee), and their sub-committees, for all their work in this regard. 5.11. COMBAR’s much-anticipated North American meeting, due to be held in Florence in May 2020, was sadly postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but COMBAR has succeed in rolling over all group and individual bookings without any cost to COMBAR or to individuals who have booked. This rescheduled North America meeting will now be held in Florence between Wednesday, 2 June to Friday, 4 June 2021. My thanks to Fionn Pilbrow QC and Emily Wood for all the work they have done organising the meeting and then so successfully and efficiently re-arranging it for next year. 5.12. Junior COMBAR. I am particularly delighted that Junior COMBAR has been relaunched with a new and considerably expanded committee. The new committee has been very active in organising and arranging an extensive number of events and seminars for its membership. Kira King and her excellent committee have done a fantastic job. I look forward to a series of interesting events over the coming year. 5.13. The future. I am committed to ensuring that the Commercial Bar continues both to attract and retain talent from all backgrounds and that COMBAR, with its impressive membership and vast resources, does everything it can to assist. I am also determined to ensure that the Executive and the various sub-committees are drawn widely from the membership, so as to be truly representative of the Commercial Bar and its array of talents. I am delighted to say that one can immediately see this is the case just from a quick glance at the Annex to this Report. If anyone else wishes to become involved please do not hesitate to contact me. 5.14. I also wanted to highlight three further initiatives. First, COMBAR is establishing a mentoring scheme for its members, which will be launched at the start of the Michaelmas term; second, COMBAR has entirely re-designed its website to make 4 it more accessible and hopefully of greater assistance in attracting talent and supporting its members (my thanks to James MacDonald and his sub-committee for all of their hard work); finally, and recognising that the future of COMBAR lies with the next generation, two new sub-committees, to be chaired by juniors, will be established. One of those sub-committees will focus on advocacy and the challenges facing the junior bar in particular, and will be chaired by Rupert Allen and Nehali Shah. The other sub-committee will focus on recruitment and pupillage issues (in liaison with the E & D committee) and will be chaired by Natasha Bennett and James Willan.