Stephen O'Rourke: It can only pay to be outwardly mobile THERE are bound to be a few headaches this morning in Dublin after the International Bar Association's (IBA) opening ceremony and welcome party last night. The party, in the city's venerable Royal Dublin Society building, marked the beginning of the week-long annual conference attended by more than 4,000 lawyers from all over the world. Host cities in recent years have included the likes of Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Singapore and Chicago. The IBA was founded in New York in 1947 and its early members devoted themselves to the principles and aims of the United Nations in order to make a real contribution to world peace and neighbourliness. They aspired to do this, for example, by seeking to improve the administration of justice under the law. Today, the IBA is a vast international organisation with a truly worldwide membership. The conference's slick, 178-page doorstopper of a handbook lists hundreds of speakers taking part in dozens of events. The keynote speaker for this year's conference is Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz: after all, the profession worldwide has rarely weathered tougher financial storms. Other showcase events include Michael Mansfield QC and Martin McGuinness on the topic "peace after terror: rules or reconciliation?" and a range of experts debating issues such as "the euro crisis: thinking the unthinkable, the public perception of lawyers and lawyers against poverty." The main events aside, most of the conference is taken up with working sessions in areas as diverse as insuring liabilities in cyberspace, family disputes involving trusts, "construction projects from hell" and the fabulously titled "is water law a sexy career for young lawyers?" Rest assured, no matter how obscure the niche of expertise there is pretty much guaranteed to be something for everyone. Lawyers can be a cynical bunch, however, and when work is demanding and times tough, glittering affairs such as this one can seem far removed from our earthy realities. But leave aside the everyday demands of another Monday morning for a moment, and ask yourself this question: can we really afford not to participate in conferences such as this? I'm afraid to say that for a country with such a remarkable legal tradition, it is astonishing that Scotland and the Scots are so markedly absent from this international legal line-up taking place on our doorstep. Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs Roseanna Cunningham, Advocate General for Scotland Jim Wallace and Brandon Malone from the Arbitration Centre are speaking tonight at a drinks and networking event. Tomorrow, the Law Society of Scotland is holding a discussion panel with speakers Stephen Mayson and Fraser McMillan from the Pinsent Masons" Glasgow office on the changing face of legal services provision. Elsewhere in the programme I can see three other brave souls (take a bow Philip Rodney at Burness, Shona Frame at MacRoberts and Grant Campbell at Brodies) - but that's it from Scotland. It's in the very times when things are tough that reaching out becomes more important than ever. After all, if Scotland and Scots don't take part on the international stage then how will we know how we're shaping up in the world, and how will the world know about Scotland? If lawyers from Mexico, Egypt, China and Korea (to name but a few) are willing to make the effort to come so far, then perhaps we need to rethink our perspectives. Raising its profile on the international stage can only boost Scotland's legal services industry. At the very least we might set a challenge and aim to have ten speakers at the next IBA conference, and if you're under 35 there's the chance to compete for an IBA scholarship and obtain a free conference place by completing an essay on one of a range of legal topics. Next year the IBA conference will be in Boston, but sooner or later thoughts will return to a European venue. The last time the IBA held its conference in Dublin was in 1968. In those days it was held every second year. The only time it was held in Scotland? Edinburgh in 1962. If the Olympics 2012 surely taught us anything, it's that great success can only come from great ambition. After all, why not? Stephen O'Rourke is an advocate with Terra Firma Chambers. He also writes at www.stephenorourke.org