Keynotes & panels
 

Wednesday 17 July 2024: 
 

Opening address: 
Lucia Ling Ket On | Director Legal Affairs of the Municipality of Amsterdam

 Lucia Ling Ket On is the director Legal Affairs of the Municipality of Amsterdam. Before joining the Municipality of Amsterdam she held various positions  within the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and within the Ministry of Justice and Security, lastly as head of the Justice and Security department at the Netherlands’ Permanent Representation to the European Union In Brussels. 

 

Keynote Lecture:  
Jeroen Soeteman | Incoming dean The Netherlands Bar 

Jeroen Soeteman is member of the general council and Vice President of the Netherlands Bar (NOvA). As of September 1, 2024, Soeteman will become Bar President, together with Sanne van Oers who is also a member of the general council. Within the general council Soeteman is responsible for the 'lawyer of the future' portfolio, including legal tech, digitalisation and AI. Soeteman has been a criminal lawyer since 1999 and currently practices at Jebbink Soeteman Advocaten in Amsterdam. He is also a guest lecturer in 'Legal tech and the legal profession' at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Prior to joining the general council of the Netherlands Bar, he was chairman of the Dutch Association of Defense Counsel.

 

Keynote Lecture: 
Prof. Natali Helberger | University Professor in Law and Digital Technology, University of Amsterdam 

Natali Helberger is a Distinguished University Professor of Law and Digital Technology with a special focus on AI at the University of Amsterdam and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). She is a member of the executive board of the Institute for Information Law (IViR), scientific director of the gravitation program ‘The Algorithmic Society’ (AlgoSoc) and co-director of the AI, Media & Democracy Lab. She served as expert for two Council of Europe Committees on AI and Fundamental Rights. Her research over the past five years has focused on how AI and ADS are transforming society and their implications for law and governance. 

 

Keynote Lecture: 
Dr. Sam Muller | Founding Director of The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) 

Sam Muller is the founding director of HiiL, which aims to empower 150 million people to resolve justice issues by 2030. An international lawyer by training, he has worked with governments, businesses, and civil society organisations on justice strategy and innovation. Sam played a significant role in establishing the International Criminal Court and co-founded the Wildlife Justice Commission and the Justice Leaders. He holds a law degree and doctorate from Leiden University and has served on numerous boards. Presently, he is the chair of the supervisory board of the World Wildlife Fund Netherlands and a member of its international board. In November 2022, Sam received the Tällberg-SNS-Eliasson Global Leadership Award for his innovative work in developing practical legal solutions that enhance democratic commitment. 

  

Thursday 18 July 2024 

Keynote Lecture:  
Prof. Dr. John Morison, | Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University Belfast 

  
John Morison is Professor of Jurisprudence in the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.  He has researched and published widely in the areas of constitutional law and theory and on the impact of new technology, particularly in the legal professions and judiciary. He is presently the coordinator of the Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Systems (LINAS) which brings together a wide range of researchers and thirty funded PhD students to explore the operation of algorithmically driven public decision-making in wider society and its impact on social justice. 

Roundtable: The Independence of the Judiciary: Lessons from Poland 
 

Prof. Dr. Marc de Werd | Professor of Court Administration, University of Amsterdam, Senior Justice at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, Member of the Consultative Council of European Judges of the Council 

Prof. Dr. Marc de Werd (The Netherlands) is senior justice at the court of appeal in Amsterdam, professor of court administration at UvA and member of the Consultative Council of European Judges at the Council of Europe 

 

Prof. Dr. Kees Sterk | Professor of Administration of European Justice, Maastricht University, Former President of European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, Member Netherlands Helsinki Committee 

Kees Sterk has been a judge for over thirty years. He is currently a member of a district court and has previously served as a member of a court of appeal and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. From 2018 to 2020, he was the president of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary. Since 2020, he has been a professor of European Judicial Procedure at Maastricht University. 

 

Prof. Scott Cummings | Professor of Legal Ethics, UCLA 

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Scott Cummings holds the inaugural Robert Henigson Chair in Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law, where he has taught since 2002. He is the founding Faculty Director of the Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession, which promotes research and dialogue on the professional challenges of global legal practice and the role of legal ethics in democracy. In 2023, Professor Cummings was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on lawyers in backsliding democracy and the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. 

 

Monika Frąckowiak | Judge Republic of Poland, Board Member Medel 

Monika Frąckowiak has been a judge at the District Court Poznań Nowe Miasto and Wilda in Poznań since 2007, presiding over many civil cases. She is a board member of the Greater Poland branch of the Association of Polish Judges Iustitia, and since 2017, she has been a board member of the European Association of Judges and Prosecutors for Democracy and Freedom (MEDEL). 

  

Friday 19 July 2024 
  
Roundtable: The Legal Profession and the Climate Crisis 

Prof. Dr. Steven Vaughan | Professor of Law and Professional Ethics, University College London 

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Steven Vaughan’s research spans lawyers’ ethics and environmental law. For many years he has been working on bringing these two fields together, including looking at lawyer responsibility for climate change through his recent ‘Existential Ethics’ paper and rule of law/rule of lawyers work.  

  

Prof. Dr. Birgit Spiesshofer | Professor of International Law and Business Ethics, University of Bremen 

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Birgit Spiesshofer, M.C.J. (New York Univ.) is attorney at law and Of Counsel (from 4/2021 - 3/2024 Europe Chief Sustainability and Governance Counsel) at the international law firm Dentons in Berlin and professor at the University of Bremen for international law and business ethics. She is a member of the Human Rights Advisory Council of BASF SE and Chair of the Compliance and CSR Committee of the German Lawyers Association and was i.a. Chair of the CSR Committees of the IBA (International Bar Association) and the CCBE (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe).  

  

Danny Hoekzema | Chairman of Law for the Climate Foundation & Attorney-at-law at Pontus Advocaten 

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Danny founded Law for the Climate (Recht voor Klimaat), a foundation uniting legal professionals to promote and advance sustainable practices in the legal field. Additionally, he established Pontus Advocaten, a not-for-profit law firm focused on using legal services and strategic litigation to foster sustainable and ethical entrepreneurship and projects. 

  

Dr. Nicky van Dijk | Team lead climate case ING / Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) 

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Nicky van Dijk is the lead researcher and team lead at Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands for the recently announced climate court case against ING. Before this she did a PhD at the University of Tasmania, Australia, focussing on intergenerational climate justice in climate law-making. 

 

Prof. Anita Ramasastry | Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law and Director Sustainable Development graduate Program, University of Washington School of Law

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Prof. Ramasastry is an expert in the fields of business and human rights, sustainable development and anti-corruption. From 2016-2022 she was a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights.  She is also a founder and editor in chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal and serves as an advisor to a variety of international organizations, civil society groups and companies on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.