The current changing times are transforming, permanently and in a profound way, how lawyers ply their trade in a world now dominated by irreversibly internationalized institutions, lawmakers, businesses and disputes. Today, more so than ever, there is a marked imbalance between the traditional lawyer—local by definition—and the new skills needed to cater, successfully and on the most competitive footing, to a legal services market that has become unmistakably international in its outlook.

With all of this in mind, successful 21st century legal practitioners now have no choice but to supplement their traditional training with the acquisition of new —now essential— know-how related to the practice of international business law. In particular, in the future it will no longer be possible for a lawyer to act in, or add value to, their client’s transactions and activities without first having a proper grounding in, and experience of, subjects such as the workings of the key institutions in the English speaking legal world, or case law, of the most relevant institutions and instruments for international contracts, of international treaties, and of international dispute resolution mechanisms, as these are all areas of expertise that have gone from being exotic to forming part of a lawyer’s skill set for his or her everyday work.

Based on a joint, shared vision of the legal profession and of how it is evolving, Centro de Estudios Garrigues and The Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School, in which participants will not only have the opportunity to delve deeply, in a balanced way and guided by the very best international legal experts, into the main areas of international law that impact the current business world, but will also be able to supplement all of this knowledge by reflecting appropriately on the commercial, geographical mobility-related, and technological aspects that increasingly define the international lawyer.