Almudena Arpón de Mendívil, partner at Gómez-Acebo & Pombo, elected new IBA president

Almudena Arpón de Mendívil, partner of Commercial and Coordinator of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group (TMT), has been elected as the new President of the International Bar Association (“IBA”) for the period 2023-2024. The election was made during the IBA Annual Conference held in Miami (USA) on November 3rd. It is the first time in 20 years that a woman will preside over the world’s largest legal association, with more than 80,000 jurists and 190 bar associations in 170 countries.

Since its founding in 1947 and following the vision of the United Nations, the IBA constantly seeks to contribute to progress, global peace and, ultimately, the rule of law. It supports the independence of lawyers and judges, promotes the defense of human rights, provides its members with first-class professional development and contributes to the creation of networks of lawyers that can enrich the law and its practice on a global scale. The work is channeled through the intense activity of the IBA’s more than 170 committees and fora, as well as its Human Rights Institute.

“It will be a privilege to preside over the IBA with the will to contribute even more to these great values of law and lawyering. I understand my Presidency of the IBA as a recognition of the high level and international capacity of the Spanish legal sector, a position that we must take advantage of to project even more the excellence of our profession and, ultimately, of Spain”, says Almudena, adding: “I want to share this success with the whole Firm. We must take advantage of it to give even more visibility to the leadership of our Firm. This achievement, together with many others, contributes to make us a reference in international business law. It is a great challenge, and I will keep on doing all I can in order to make the name of the Firm reach the highest level”.

“We are facing a window of opportunity for our Association,” says the new President. “The combination of the energy demonstrated at the Miami Conference and the challenges presented by the new environment offer us the opportunity to use this turning point to take the Association to the next level.

Specifically, during this period, the focus of the Chairmanship will be on five major themes:
1. highlighting the profession’s impact on society today, identifying levers to increase it in the future;
2. addressing with even greater rigor the gender challenge in the legal sector;
3. involve the sector in the ESG agenda, contributing to the clarification of the confusion that exists in this area;
4. anticipate the challenges posed by digitalization in relation to human rights;
5. and, finally, to prepare the legal profession for the future, especially young lawyers.