Our autumn meeting 2024 took place in Lisbon from October 4th to 5th. Carlos Gomes did a wonderful job at organising an unforgettable weekend in his home country. Thank you, Carlos! 

On Friday we had a very interesting lecture series by many professionals on the topic of “AI Challenges and Opportunities in the legal sector.” First, we listened to Filipa Caldeira, Advisory Data & AI Sales Specialist at IBM Portugal. In her insightful presentation, “Watsonx in Action: Unlocking AI for the Legal Sector,” she introduced Watsonx – IBM’s cutting-edge AI and data platform designed for businesses – and discussed its potential application in law firms.  Then we heard from Hugo Farinha, COO of ROOX, a legaltech company from Portugal, specialized in delivering high-quality products and services tailored for the legal sector, aiming to streamline processes and eliminate repetitive tasks. This was followed by a presentation by José Eduardo Fonesca, Director at Kyndryl who dived into Challenges and Opportunities of AI in the legal sector. Lastly, we had the pleasure of hearing from Ella de Silva from Legau on their mission of transforming legal drafting with AI. Thank you to all guest speakers for the insightful presentations!

We ended our Friday with a walk through the old city of Lisbon, enjoying some sights at night and having dinner at O Jardim Lisboa, a wonderful Portuguese restaurant.

On Saturday we held our general meeting, where we decided on many great innovations for our network. Afterwards, Carlos organised a sight seeing tour by bus to many beautiful locations such as Sintra, Guincho Beach and Cascais. We ended the day at the MAAT Restaurant with some great food and good conversations.

Thank you Carlos for this unforgettable meeting!

Our last meeting took place in Skopje, Macedonia from 6^th to 10^th October 2023. Our colleagues Aleksandar Kchev and Mishko Radosavljevik from Bonafide Law put together a wonderful and informative weekend in their home country. 

On the first day, we observed some interesting welcome talks on the topic of AI and law. Sonja Anastasova, an associate of Bona Fide Law gave us insight into the EU AI Act and the many unanswered questions when it comes to legally regulating AI. Afterwards, we heard from Filip Petrovski, the CEO of Data Masters, who talked about AI, data and its usage from a business perspective. Lastly, Svetislav Smilkov from ARC AUTOMOTIVE, INC. educated our members on the technological development zones in North Macedonia. This was followed by an amazing dinner at a traditional Macedonian restaurant. 

On the next day, our general meeting took place, where we had a very productive discussion about the future of our network. Afterwards, we had the incredible opportunity to explore North Macedonia’s renowned Tikves Winery. We started with an enlightening tour, delving into the intricate process of winemaking, which was followed by a delicious four-course dinner paired with exquisite wine tastings.