Andrew Mackenzie appointed officer of International Bar Association Committee

Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive of the Scottish Arbitration Centre, has been appointed communications officer for the International Bar Association Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee.

The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is an organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies.

The IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession throughout the world.

The Association has a membership of 55,000 individual lawyers and more than 190 bar associations and law societies spanning all continents, and has considerable experience in providing assistance to the global legal community.

The IBA Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee gathers information from around the world on the barriers to access to justice in each jurisdiction and ways in which these barriers are overcome, publicising its findings with reports and events with a view to sharing and spreading good practice.

The other officers of the Committee are Axel Filges (co-chair), Germany; Lucy Scott-Moncrieff (co-chair), England; Malathi Das (co-vice chair), Singapore; Mark Woods (co-vice chair), Australia; Andrea Elizabeth Redway (secretary), Canada; and James Robottom (website officer), England.

Mr Mackenzie, who is also secretary general of the International Centre of Energy Arbitration, is a solicitor on secondment from the Scottish Government Justice Directorate.

He said: “I am delighted to have been selected by the IBA as Communications Officer for Access to Justice and Legal Aid Committee.

“In terms of access to justice, expectations, definitions and resources vary wildly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

“Therefore, the work of the Committee in exploring these differing approaches provides a valuable source of ideas and information for those jurisdictions struggling to maintain or improve access to justice, particularly in times of austerity.

“The Scottish Arbitration Centre has worked with Scottish government and other domestic bodies on access to justice policy, including Making Justice Work and the Digital Justice Strategy.

“I am particularly interested in the use of technology in providing better access to justice, such as use online dispute resolution platforms.

The Committee works with other IBA Committees in developing joint activities and projects on access to justice, so there might be opportunities to collaborate with the IBA Arbitration Committee, which I am also a member of, and the IBA Mediation Committee.”

Commenting on the appointment, Brandon Malone, chairman of the board of the Centre, said: “The board congratulates Andrew on his appointment.

“Andrew and I have represented the Centre at a number of IBA conferences, and it is clear that one of the great strengths of the IBA is its global reach.

“We have had input into various access to justice projects in Scotland, and Andrew will now have the opportunity to work on international projects.

“This ensures that Scotland has a voice on this Committee, and is able to feedback to those here on access to justice and other initiatives elsewhere in the world.”

See below for further information.

http://www.int-bar.org/Officers/Index.cfm?unit=259_0_0_1_0