The International Bar Association has canceled its November annual conference, which was set to take place in Miami, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an email sent out to IBA members.

The conference will instead be presented as a series of webinars, a common stand-in for educational events amid the pandemic. The 2021 conference in Paris has not been canceled, and the Miami conference has been rescheduled to the fall of 2022.

The cancellation was first reported by the Global Legal Post.

In an email sent to IBA members, obtained by Law.com, IBA President Horacio Bernardes Neto and IBA Executive Director Mark Ellis cast the pandemic as the “biggest challenge the Association has ever faced,” adding that the organization’s response will “define us.”

“Rest assured, we will weather this storm,” the email read. “The IBA’s strong financial reserves, dedicated and professional staff, and remarkable team of volunteers in leadership positions across the association, give us the foundation to continue our work.”

The email went on to mention the 17 webinars the IBA has created since the pandemic—with 25 more to come—and the £100,000 the IBA has set aside front line legal aid clinics.

This is the first-ever cancellation of the IBA annual conference, which was held in Seoul last year. It is attended by more than 6,000 attorneys yearly and is one of the largest gatherings of attorneys in the world, according to Neto and Ellis. Miami city boosters and attorneys have long touted the conference as a boon to the city’s local economy and role as an emerging global arbitration powerhouse.

The cancellation comes two weeks after the American Bar Association voted to replace its 2020 Annual Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Chicago from July 29 to Aug. 4, with an online virtual meeting.

The IBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

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© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.