North America

COMBAR North American and Offshore Meeting – 27-29 May 2026  – Registration in open.

We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for the 2026 North American and Offshore Meeting.  Please register here.

Rome is wonderful in May. The weather is warm, but not too hot, the light is golden, and city life spills out onto the streets late into the evenings.

This conference is the highlight of COMBAR’s year, bringing together commercial barristers of all seniorities with our guest Judges, top North American and offshore lawyers and legal leaders from Rome.

This year we will be joined by Lord Leggatt of the UK Supreme Court and Mr Justice Henshaw, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court in London as our UK judicial guests of honour.

The conference will be based at The Westin Excelsior a historic grand five-star hotel near the Villa Borghese Gardens, a short walk from some of Rome’s finest historical attractions and restaurants.

The conference will be packed with sessions on recent commercial topics, debates, Q&As, interactive talks and lots of networking time and fun.  The programme will include an exclusive evening reception on the rooftop terrace of the Hassler Hotel (recently featured on the BBC) overlooking the Spanish Steps and the skyline of Rome.  After an optional afternoon tour of the impressive Supreme Court of Cassation and reception with Italian Justices, we conclude with a gala dinner in the spectacular 16th century  Chiostro del Bramante Rome, surrounded by modern art and with live music. The conference is designed for partners and families to join us for evening events and enjoy a special day out exploring the delights of Rome.

Junior COMBAR members are particularly encouraged to join us with significantly reduced conference attendance fees and a private breakfast organised between the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court and junior barrister attendees. Juniors under 7 year’s Call can also apply to the Young Barristers’ Committees’ International Grant Programme which supports attendance by paying up to two thirds of your costs, including travel.

Hotel bookings using the group rate can be made here (and are fully refundable until 26 April 2026) on a very preferential group rate.  Early hotel bookings by conference attendees have been strong and we have nearly filled our initial allocation of rooms under the group rate.  We are now currently adding further rooms to the group block booking.  If you wish to book the group rate at the conference hotel but there is no availability showing, please message Nic Wood with your room requirements through this link. indicating the number of rooms you would require and the dates and category of room and we will come back to you in January 2026 once additional group rate rooms have been made available. – 14 January update – The Westin have confirmed that additional rooms will be added to the inventory on 15 January 26, the administrator will inform members when the rooms are available to be booked.

Room Booking Details

The hotel has asked us to draw guests’ attention to the right-hand side of the booking page which includes step by step instructions on how to book the room, which dates to select, the cancellation policy, and other important details.

Staying longer?

If you wish to book your stay outside of the core conference dates, the hotel has agreed to apply the group rate, where availability allows.  Please note that you will need to book the core dates through the link before contacting the hotel to book your extended dates:  Once you receive the email confirmation, you can send your request to: 00070.eventsales@westin.com  Please don’t try to select dates that are wider than the core period, this will indicate non-availability. However, if the system does allow you to book dates at the higher rate, please highlight this to the email above and copy in admin@combar.com

Room rates and taxes

Please note the room rates will have the 10% VAT and the room tax applied to the booking total. For example, a €530 Grandluxe room will have €53 VAT added and tourist tax per person of €10 euro.  This makes a Grandluxe room for one person €593 inc taxes.

  • Deluxe Single: €390 / Double: €420 + 10% VAT
  • Grandluxe Single: €530 / Double: €560 + 10% VAT
  • Third bed: + €110 + 10% VAT

Breakfast included. City tax of €10 per person, per night not included. 3rd bed Euro 110 + 10% VAT

Room Cancellation Policy

  • From 27 April to 12 May 2026: 50% penalty
  • From 13 May to 20 May 2026: 80% penalty
  • From 21 May to arrival day (27 May 2026): 100% penalty

Registration

Registration is now open please register here.   The link will allow you to book your place at the conference, reserve places for you and your guests at the receptions and the dinner and to volunteer to be a panel speaker.  Please note that the conference is open to COMBAR Members only unless by specific invitation. If you have any further questions, please email Nic on admin@combar.com.

North American and Offshore Meeting Montréal, Canada 28-30 May 2025

The successful meeting was held in Montréal, Canada 28-30 May 2025.  The venue for the Conference was  the Ritz Carlton.   Mr Justice Henshaw, the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, kindly attended the Conference as the UK Judicial Guest of Honour.  Canadian Supreme Court Judge, the Honourable Suzanne Côté was in attendance as the Canadian judicial guest of honour at the concluding gala dinner.

The Conference opened with a welcome reception in the Oval Room and Terrace at the Ritz Carlton.  A drinks reception was held at le9e, a recently restored 1930’s Art Deco gem located on the ninth floor of Montreal’s Eaton Centre. The meeting culminated with a gala dinner which was held in the spectacular  St James Theatre.

North American Meeting 2024 Stockholm, Sweden

The successful meeting was held in Stockholm from the 29th May – 31st May.  We were fortunate to be joined by both The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Sue Carr, DBE, PC, and The Hon. Mr Justice Foxton, the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, as our Judicial Guests.

The meeting was primarily held at the Hotel At Six,  and at the nearby Nordic Light Hotel.  The conference consisted of sessions addressing contemporary issues for commercial litigators including Law and Technology, Issues in Cross-Border Litigation, and Perspectives in Advocacy at both first instance and appellate level. A breakfast for Juniors was kindly hosted by our Judicial Guests.

The Thursday evening cocktail reception was held in the spectacular Vasa Museum and included a tour of the 17th century Swedish warship.  The events culminated with a gala dinner held in the Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall, (Golden Hall  – Wikipedia), a beautiful historic venue. Swedish Supreme Court Judge Eric M Runesson gave a short welcome speech at the drinks reception immediately before the gala dinner

Combined North American and Offshore Meeting 2023, Boston, USA

The successful meeting took place in Boston from the 31st May to the 2nd June.  It is hoped that the presentations will be distributed to the participants in due course. The registration link is now closed.

The meeting began with a welcome reception on the evening of Wednesday 31 May 2023 in the Wyeth Room of the Langham Hotel, a cocktail reception was held at the Boston College Club overlooking the city with river views on the Thursday evening and the conference finished with a gala dinner held at the Moakley Federal Courthouse on Friday 2 June 2023.  The conference itself was hosted at The Langham Hotel, a beautiful venue located in the heart of downtown Boston, and was accompanied by a variety of cultural and social events for members, their partners and families. The programme may be found here.

The North American meetings are always valuable and hugely enjoyable occasions. The meeting is attended by COMBAR barrister members of all seniorities, as well as senior litigators from leading US, Canadian an Mexican firms, and it provides an unrivalled opportunity for people to meet and discuss matters in convivial and relaxed surroundings. This year, our guest of honour was Mr Justice Foxton, the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court. Boston provided the perfect location for our first event in North America since 2019, and we were particularly excited to welcome colleagues practising in offshore jurisdictions who brought an even broader international perspective to the sessions. 

 

North American Meeting 2022, Florence, Italy

The North American Meeting in Florence on 2 and 3 June was a great success. Having waited two years for the Meeting to finally take place, Combar members and our Honorary Overseas members were able to make up for lost time and enjoy lively and interesting discussion. The programme line up worked well with a good balance of substantive, comparative, procedural and acquired wisdom. The St Regis Hotel was a perfect venue for the conference, with its high ceilings and beautiful decorations and delegates did not feel trapped by the windowless rooms that are the usual custom for conference venues. The al fresco social events were lovely too and we were blessed with sunshine and warm weather throughout our time in Florence. Special thanks to all our panel speakers and to Jim Drake QC for inviting delegates to visit his vineyard at the weekend. I’m told business was brisk!

 

North America Committee
Chair: Tom Mountford (Blackstone Chambers)
Vice-Chair: Andrew Burns KC (Devereux Chambers)
Rumen Cholakov (3 Verulam Buildings)
Katherine Ratcliffe (Essex Court Chambers)