Nate Lankford and James Tillen will speak at the International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference 2026 in Copenhagen. Lankford will present, as a part of a panel, "Strengthening corporate efforts in UNGP Pillar 3: access to remedy." This session will explore the challenges that rightsholders may face in seeking remediation for business-related human rights harm, including power asymmetries, lack of meaningful participation, exclusion of context-sensitive approaches, limited community trust in companies, and limited enforcement of decisions through judicial, quasi-judicial and non-judicial processes. It will also explore how businesses seeking to comply with or apply international BHR laws and standards can work to mitigate some of these barriers, including how to reasonably defend against actions in line with these standards. The session will delve into the role of lawyers, both in-house and external, in supporting businesses to take this type of approach, as well as the role of plaintiff lawyers in strategic litigation to help break down barriers and contribute to all parties acting in good faith in these types of proceedings.

Tillen will chair the session "From high-trust societies to high-risk markets: lessons from Nordic companies operating globally." The Nordic countries are consistently associated with low levels of corruption and high public trust, as confirmed by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index and other indices. When Nordic companies operate globally, however, they encounter operating environments with different regulatory frameworks, business practices, and corruption risks. This panel will explore how Nordic companies approach anti-corruption compliance, third-party risk management, investigations, and corporate accountability in global operations. It will examine how strong domestic governance traditions can support effective compliance practices abroad but also present blind spots when navigating different legal, commercial, and cultural environments. While grounded in Nordic corporate experience, the lessons and strategies discussed will provide valuable insights for companies, policymakers, and practitioners operating in diverse jurisdictions and risk environments around the world.