Environmental, Social & Governance

Our ESG lawyers have extensive experience advising clients on both the design and effectiveness of ESG strategies, as well as the governance frameworks needed to embed ESG across their organisations. We help ensure that strategies are not only ambitious but also practical, resilient, and capable of withstanding regulatory, litigation, and stakeholder scrutiny.

We understand that successful ESG governance requires a holistic and tailored approach. That’s why we work closely with clients to develop solutions that align with their culture, values, and organisational structures. Our support spans board and executive-level governance, ESG policies and escalation frameworks, integrating ESG into strategic transactions and investments, approaches to ESG disclosure, stakeholder mapping and engagement, managing responses to activist NGO campaigns or public criticism, and mitigating risks such as greenwashing.

The landscape is complex, evolving rapidly and heavily influenced by customer and stakeholder expectations and voluntary commitments and initiatives.

We help clients understand what their key ESG risks and opportunities are:

• the applicable ESG regulatory requirements.
• what voluntary statements clients have made publicly.
• what frameworks or memberships clients have signed up to and what steps clients are required to take.
• stakeholder mapping, understanding stakeholder expectations and strategies to engage successfully with them; and
• shareholder and investor relations across ESG.

Our ESG lawyers have deep experience of helping clients address challenges across their supply chains.

With the rise of ESG and new legislation on human rights and supply chain due diligence, showing respect for human rights is increasingly an important area of focus.

The increased scrutiny demands that businesses have visibility of their supply chains and adopt a transparent approach to supply chain management and disclosures. We help prepare robust policies and processes to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts relevant to supply chain, business relationships, investor relations, brand management and access to finance.

In light of the changing regulatory landscape, many clients are refining their human rights policy commitments and implementing enhanced diligence processes, impact assessments and compliance systems.

We support clients fulfil their regulatory reporting requirements and work closely with clients to implement appropriate governance structures and support internal reporting.

The main aim behind sustainability disclosure regimes is to increase transparency and provide investors and other relevant stakeholders with better and more comparable sustainability information about companies so that they can make better informed investment decisions.

Our work in this area is varied and frequently cross sector and legal specialism. It inevitably focusses on risks relating to climate change, the energy transition and sustainability. Our ESG solicitors support clients in addressing legal challenges that arise as part of operations, getting ahead of issues on new transactions and developments and focussing on the opportunities that ESG integration can provide.

Examples of work includes

• Supporting clients with decarbonisation goals arising from the implementation of renewable energy projects including solar, wind, hydrogen, battery storage and EV charging.
• Advising clients on regulatory requirements relating to environmental reporting, including reviewing company policy documents and registers to ensure compliance with relevant legislation.
• Advising on the sustainable use of natural capital and the promotion of biodiversity.
• The production of an ESG horizon scanner for a major investment bank focusing on the environmental and planning aspects of the built environment.
• Navigating issues of liability for contaminated land or other environmental pollution.

ESG and climate change disputes continue to be on the rise globally in respect of human rights harms, supply chain disclosures, and ‘greenwashing’. Focus on reporting requirements and corporate disclosures will continue as requirements tighten, regulatory investigations conclude, and corporate failures will encourage follow on investor claims.

Our ESG lawyers have extensive experience of advising clients to navigate ESG investigations. Our ESG lead oversaw two of the most prominent UK investigations in the ESG space. An investigation across supply chain governance and human rights across deep and complex retail supply chains, and the CMA’s investigation into misleading green claims in the fashion industry.

Our ESG team advises on a wide variety of ESG-related issues and helps clients assess their liability risk potentially at risk of facing ESG disputes (including greenwashing claims) or regulatory investigations.

Often a mismanaged crisis can have a greater long-term financial impact than the incident itself. When a crisis does strike, acting quickly is essential. With the rapid dissemination of information online, perceived delays in addressing an issue can amplify reputational damage. Internal investigations must therefore be capable of operating under intense public and regulatory scrutiny. Planning in advance can help minimise the risk, mitigate any damage that could occur, and ensure you are ready to activate your plans immediately.

In the ESG context, this concern can be heightened. ESG performance is closely monitored by the media, politicians, investors, stakeholder groups and the public and many stakeholders increasingly expect companies to respond swiftly and decisively when allegations of adverse impacts arise. We have deep experience of working with companies navigating ESG challenges during investigations, implementing remediation plans and navigate activist shareholder and stakeholder groups.