Michael Kutschera was elected ‘Honorary Life Member’ of the International Bar Association (IBA) at the IBA Council Meeting in Bucharest on 24 May 2024.

Michael Kutschera has been a member of the IBA since 1985 and as representative of the Austrian Bar Association a member of the IBA Council since 1999.

His career in the IBA began in 1985 as Secretary of the Sub-Committee on Legal Opinions of the Banking Law Committee (BLC). There, as co-author, he was instrumental in the publication of ‘Legal Opinions in International Transactions’, one of the IBA's most distinguished publications. As later Chair of the BLC, he helped to make the annual IBA Banking Law Conference one of the IBA's most successful events. It was held in Vienna twice. He continues to be involved in BLC projects on legal opinions.

Since its establishment in 2005, he has supported the Bar Issues Commission (BIC), the IBA's forum for bar associations, both as an Officer and as member and Chair of its Policy Committee and was ultimately Chair of the BIC from 2009-2010. During this time, the IBA International Principles on Conduct for the Legal Profession were revised under his direction and approved by Council in 2011. In addition the BIC's position within the IBA was strengthened.

In 2015, during his 6 years as a member of the IBA Management Board, he was able to manage that the IBA's annual conference was successfully organised in Vienna with over 5,000 participants.

From 2015-2020, he was Chair (previously member for several terms) of what is now the Constitution and Governance Committee of the IBA and continues to be one of its advisors. In this role, he has been involved in amendments to the IBA Constitution and institutional reforms of the association.