The International Bar Association’s (IBA’s) annual conference in San Francisco was awash with debate about the threat to the independence of business lawyers posed by legislation such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Intriguingly, as the week-long bash drew to a close, a clear division of opinion emerged among the ranks of business lawyers who attended the event. In one corner stood the traditionalists who argued that the legal profession should resist attacks against its privileges at all costs.