The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), which represents through its member bars more than 700,000 lawyers, is pleased to invite you to a conference on 15 December 2005 in Madrid.

This conference is organised by the CCBE in partnership with the Consejo General de la Abogacía Española (CGAE- Spanish Bar Association), and addresses “ E-communication and the legal profession in Europe”.

The conference will gather IT experts from the Bars of the European Union and the European Economic Area, members of the CCBE and CGAE IT Law Committees, representatives from national governments and European institutions in charge of information society policies.

The conference aims, on the one hand, to share the experience of those European Bars which are well advanced in e-communication and the Internet, and on the other hand, to address the challenges faced by the legal profession in Europe with regard to the information society.

The CCBE wishes, through the organisation of such an event, to help develop the use of electronic communication, in particular with the courts, in the framework of the professional rules applicable to the legal profession, and to seek assistance in the development of its own work programme for 2006 a s part of its role in assisting European bars.