We asked Tracy Kepler Director, ABA Center for Professional Responsibility and recent ICLR Singapore attendee, to share some of her conference highlights with us.
What was your favourite session and why?
Tracy: Session 3: A New Look at Regulators’ Roles & Responsibilities – being divided into small groups to discuss certain questions and issues with differing attendees provided a wealth of in depth information as well as time to actually dig deeper and flesh out problem areas and find different ways of dealing with the same problem. I am a BIG fan of active listening and participation in conferences.
What was the most interesting/surprising thing you learned?
Tracy: The HUGE number of member attorneys in the Nigerian Bar Association!
What are you taking away from the conference that you will try to apply to your work?
Tracy: Nick Chan, panelist on the Attorney Wellbeing panel, talked about how Hong Kong deals with various attorney wellbeing issues from a group or collective approach thru team events, be it sports, reading to kids, flower arranging, etc. Rather that the isolated and individual approach we try in the U.S., or the overwhelming “suffering in silence” problem attorneys and law students face in the U.S., looking at reducing stress and anxiety as well as overcoming stigma from a group perspective was refreshing, innovative, welcoming, and seems a much more compelling way to minimize the problems among our colleagues.
What was the best thing about the conference?
Tracy: (1) Meeting and networking with colleagues who share the same zeal and passion for this type of work from around the globe; (2) use of the Pigeonhole app to be able to post and vote on questions during the programmes.
What would you like to see at a future conference that would improve the experience for attendees?
Tracy: More interactive panels where there is opportunity for audience participation and engagement.
If you attended the conference and would like to share feedback with the ICLR.net community and conference organisers please do get in contact. We want to work together to ensure the next ICLR conference is at least as excellent as Singapore 2017.