The increasing prioritization of environmental, social and corporate governance issues for corporations—and similarly, the rise of Big Law practice groups to meet the demand—is requiring a somewhat novel intimacy between in-house teams and their outside counsel.

ESG groups are becoming increasingly ubiquitous among Big Law firms. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Hunton Andrews Kurth; Seyfarth Shaw and Schiff Hardin have launched ESG groups in recent months pulling together multidisciplinary teams from offices all over the world.

But simply having the talent may not be enough. In a continuing tradition of corporate counsel empowerment that has been most forceful so far in the diversity space, outside counsel advising companies in advancing their ESG goals are being asked to, in a way, partner in the endeavor.

Connor Kuratek, deputy general counsel at Marsh McLennan in New York, said law firms that hope to work on the company’s ESG matters have to be on their own ESG journey whether that be through active diversity and inclusion efforts, environmental reporting or reducing their carbon footprint as much as possible.

“If law firms are going to advise and be successful in advising clients on how to engage in ESG matters, they also need to walk the walk,” Kuratek says. “They can also commit to reduce air travel for example. We want someone who shares the same values as we do.”

According to the 2021 Chief Legal Officer survey published by the Association of Corporate Counsel in January, a major theme among in-house counsel involved in ESG efforts included supply chain and third-party ethical requirements.

Much of the ACC’s ESG efforts have included upgrading its governance documents, and have been centered around diversity and inclusion.

Susannah McDonald, the ACC chief legal officer, said she has not engaged outside counsel to work on ESG matters. However, she is holding their feet to the fire on the issue of diversity and inclusion.

On the Big Law side, many firms are already feeling the pressure from their clients to hand over documents and submit reports on their own ESG efforts.

Kevin Poloncarz, co-chair of Covington & Burling’s environmental and energy practice, said clients are requesting scope reports from the firm—an accounting of an organization’s direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions tied to things such as office space, business travel and commuting.

“We’ve received [ESG] requests from clients several months ago and have been participating with their procurement team,” Poloncarz says.

Poloncarz and others trace these client requests to the long-standing demand that outside counsel report diversity and inclusion figures, a dynamic that has only grown increasingly important as companies look to diversify to meet their ESG goals.

“Just like diversity and inclusion, our clients are going to ask for information from us and measure our success,” Poloncarz says.

Other firms are not yet fielding those same requests, but anticipate them coming in the near future.

“I have talked to clients about that issue and are starting to look at what their service providers can offer and promise in terms of carbon accounting,” says Amy Antoniolli, who heads up Schiff Hardin’s recently formed ESG practice. “It might be travel, it might be office buildings and where they operate. It could involve a whole sort of range of reporting obligations for those service providers. It’s not there yet but one day it might be.”

And as ESG practices continue to proliferate throughout Big Law, some in-house counsel are also left wanting in terms of substantive practice.

Carlos Brown, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Dominion Energy in Richmond, Virginia, said very few firms, in his experience, come to the table advising on social issues such as pay inequality, fair voting laws and diversity and inclusion.

“When you’re an attorney, you’re a counselor at law. You are there to give business and ethics advice. When it comes to those ‘S’ issues, our firms are not providing that advice. If you’re going to help our company you have to come to the table and say ‘let me flag for you what some of the best practices for similar companies are. Let’s talk about gender pay equity. They have to be providing that kind of advice if they want to be viewed as best in class in this space,” Brown explained.

Many ESG groups at firms have their focus in the SEC teams or environmental teams. Brown said he would like to see more labor and employment attorneys put in those groups.



“It seems like those lawyers have this perspective of ‘how do we position you so you don’t get sued but also so that you’re being viewed as a choice employer and a leader in civic activism and social justice?’” Brown explained.