‘You are all climate lawyers now.’ So declared John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, at the General Assembly of the 2021 American Bar Association hybrid annual meeting in Chicago. Fast forward to 2023, and the veracity of this statement far exceeds even Kerry’s predictions.

‘You are all ESG lawyers now rings just as true’, quips Slaughter and May corporate partner and head of sustainability Jeff Twentyman. ‘All lawyers have to be conversant in it, and it should be part of all lawyers’ day-to-day job.’

Today’s focus on ESG means that the impact every company makes on the environment and society, as well as its internal governance policies, is under scrutiny. Accountability can no longer be an afterthought – it has permeated the very fabric of doing business. ‘It’s not a discrete subject anymore; it affects everything’, states Twentyman.

Inevitably, this scrutiny is also being placed on lawyers both in-house and in private practice.

Continued