[ad_1]
This content material initially appeared in The World Lawyer — our weekly abstract of the foremost information and developments affecting the worldwide authorized trade. I’m Lisa Shuchman, government editor of Legislation.com Worldwide. Please be at liberty to contact me here, and If you’d like The World Lawyer to reach in your inbox each Monday, join here.
A lot of the world is celebrating the Yr of the Ox this week—a yr within the Lunar Calendar that symbolizes honesty, persistence, laborious work and positivity. And far of the world is feeling extra constructive, as individuals are lastly capable of think about a post-COVID future. However as the specter of the virus nonetheless looms, as world warming continues to destroy the planet, and as individuals throughout the globe struggle oppression and persecution in several varieties, companies and legislation companies are starting to acknowledge that they’ve a job to play in making a distinction.
This has grow to be evident in our current reporting on environmental, social and governance practices, that are proliferating at legislation companies across the globe. The momentum is pushed by authorities laws, institutional traders, and company shoppers.
Dylan Jackson wrote final week that Seyfarth Shaw introduced it has formed an ESG group, co-led by attorneys based mostly in London, Chicago and San Francisco. The identical day, Hunton Andrews Kurth announced the formation of its ESG group. And Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe bolstered its ESG practice with the rent of Ashley Walter, an skilled in company and social accountability, who will head the agency’s ESG staff. And earlier this month, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher announced its new ESG apply.
In Hong Kong, a former Jones Day associate launched a boutique law firm in Hong Kong last week that will focus entirely on sustainability. Ben McQuhae, an skilled in sustainable finance, instructed Vincent Chow that his choice to launch his agency was prompted partially by pledges made by the governments of China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan to attain net-zero carbon emissions within the subsequent few many years. McQuhae has additionally dedicated his agency to being a net-zero agency.
Different companies have additionally entered the fray. Final month, Asia correspondent Jessica Seah wrote that Rajah & Tann Singapore launched a sustainability practice; in November, Clifford Chance established an ESG taskforce; and in October, Baker McKenzie named its first chief sustainability officer.
Just a few companies have even dedicated to modifications of their very own. In December, Herbert Smith Freehills said it would cut its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030, Varsha Patel wrote. Again in April, Meganne Tillay wrote that CMS is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2025. And final month Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer introduced it plans to dramatically cut its use of airplanes as part of a five-year environment strategy for the agency. It has set out formal targets to cut back carbon emissions from world enterprise journey by 30%, which is able to largely be centered on flying much less, Varsha wrote.
Some companies have been forward of the curve, steadily increase ESG practices for a while, together with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Ashurst and Winston & Strawn. In reality, as Hannah Roberts wrote in December, legislation companies have been scrambling to maintain up with rising consumer demand for sustainability recommendation.
Why the race to construct ESG practices?
This month, a case in France demonstrated simply why these practices have grow to be so essential. An administrative court docket in Paris dominated that the French state is answerable for environmental harm brought on by failure to uphold its commitments to fight local weather change. As correspondent Anne Bagamery writes, the landmark ruling, dubbed by the French media “The Case of the Century.” is likely both to accelerate and to change the character of environmental litigation in France. Attorneys instructed Anne that the ruling would virtually actually result in a rise in environmental litigation, on high of an already brisk enterprise in France offering recommendation on environmental affect to a variety of company shoppers.
However it’s not simply France.
Our Africa correspondent, Jennigay Coetzer, wrote final week a couple of long-running dispute involving Royal Dutch Shell and a gaggle of Nigerian villagers that ended with the Court docket of Attraction at the Hague ordering the oil firm to compensate the Nigerian farmers and members of the community for damages caused by a 2008 oil spill. The court docket famous that Royal Dutch Shell had failed to put in a leak detection system, which might have prevented the in depth harm. And because the lawyer for the Nigerian farmers identified, the case confirmed that European firms should behave responsibly overseas.
And our Latin America correspondent Amy Guthrie wrote that mining giant Vale agreed to a $7 billion settlement in Brazil to cowl reparations for environmental and different damages brought on by a 2019 dam rupture on the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine that killed greater than 270 individuals—marking what seems to be the most important mediation settlement up to now in Latin America.
Within the United States, the Biden administration has made local weather change a precedence and instantly had the U.S. rejoin the Paris Local weather Accords. This month the Securities and Alternate Fee introduced the creation of a brand new function—Senior Coverage Advisor for Local weather and ESG—which is able to advise on ESG issues and advance associated initiatives which are prone to embody ESG disclosure necessities for public firms. Specialists additionally imagine ESG is prone to be an more and more necessary issue within the decision-making of traders and credit score suppliers.
However the atmosphere shouldn’t be the only focus of ESG. The German authorities printed a draft provide chain legislation final week that goals to carry firms accountable for human rights breaches. The legislation would wonderful firms procuring components or supplies from suppliers that fail to fulfill minimal human rights and environmental requirements.
Germany shouldn’t be alone. The U.Ok. has its Fashionable Slavery Act. France has its Loi de Vigilance. And the United Nations has issued Guiding Rules on Enterprise and Human Rights. Multinational firms are more and more involved with enterprise integrity danger administration. Again in 2019, Debevoise & Plimpton created a Business Integrity Screen as a information for companies which are going through sanctions or lawsuits in gentle of human rights regulation.
One lawyer I spoke with not too long ago expressed hope that by way of ESG, legal professionals may assist advance human rights all over the world.
This conviction can also be what Leo Strine, a former chief justice within the state of Delaware and a number one proponent of governance reform, espoused when he joined Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz again in April.
“I assumed the significance of companies in our society couldn’t be measured by their inventory worth,” Strine stated in a press release on the time, “and that it was essential to our nation’s well-being that highly effective companies deal with their employees and customers nicely, help the communities during which they function, and concentrate on environmentally accountable, sustainable wealth creation.”
Maybe we’ve come a great distance for the reason that Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote that company executives mustn’t act as if enterprise has a social conscience—that they need to acknowledge that their sole accountability is to extend income and shareholder worth.
And if companies actually acknowledge the necessity for change, legislation companies will bounce by way of hoops to point out their shoppers that they’ve the perfect staff within the authorized trade to assist them navigate the highway forward.
And that might be a power for good.
Europe and Africa Rising
Final week, we noticed Am Legislation 200 agency Armstrong Teasdale launch an office in London by way of the acquisition of U.Ok. agency Kerman & Co, immediately giving the U.S. agency greater than 50 legal professionals and employees within the U.Ok. And Justin Henry wrote that agency leaders say the transfer doesn’t simply permit them to faucet into London’s world community of monetary trade shoppers. It also will serve as the firm’s “entrée into Europe,” they stated.
In a post-Brexit world, it’s most likely value mentioning that Armstrong Teasdale managing associate David Braswell nonetheless acknowledges London because the monetary trade capital of Europe. However he additionally stated that due to Brexit, it’s critically necessary for the agency to have an office both in the U.K. and in the EU.
He additionally famous that the merger was pushed by shoppers who wanted worldwide experience, and that elevated globalization is essential for a legislation agency’s survival. (A lot for the U.S. push to decouple from the remainder of the world over the previous 4 years!)
Different companies in Europe are additionally making modifications: Final week, Anne Bagamery wrote that ECIJA has recruited two new partners to its Madrid headquarters. And the previous head of Hogan Lovells in Moscow, Oxana Balayan, mentioned with correspondent Eva von Schaper what it’s wish to be a profitable girl lawyer in Russia, why she makes use of Instagram to advertise her agency, and what it’s been like to launch her own firm in the face of a multitude of challenges. Her phrases of knowledge for different girls legal professionals in Russia may resonate with girls legal professionals in all places: “Ladies, be totally different,” she stated. “As a result of being totally different, means being modern. That is one thing which may set you aside, no matter gender.”
The authorized trade can also be increasing in Africa. In reality, DLA Piper’s not too long ago appointed managing associate for the Center East and Africa, Peter Somekh, instructed correspondent Jennigay Coetzer that he believes Africa is the future for law. The continent has lengthy been considered as excessive danger by legislation companies and their shoppers, however Somekh stated African international locations are making themselves extra engaging for funding.
His view is echoed by Baker McKenzie’s new director of Africa operations, who was appointed in January. Bruce Schubach, beforehand the chief working officer on the agency’s Johannesburg workplace, instructed Jennigay that the agency, which presently has legal professionals in Johannesburg, Cairo and Casablanca, is seeking to broaden throughout the continent. There’s good progress potential in Africa, he stated, and shoppers have an urge for food for getting into the African market.
Performing in Asia
Asia has at all times been a troublesome marketplace for world companies, however final week Vincent Chow wrote a narrative about Steptoe & Johnson, which stunned the market when it moved into Hong Kong solely a yr in the past—within the midst of a pandemic, rising U.S.-China tensions and political upheaval in Hong Kong. And in that yr, the agency’s Hong Kong workplace has flourished. It tapped into a distinct segment market the place demand was excessive, Vincent defined, bringing its expertise in U.S. export controls and sanctions enforcement to the area at a time when such information is sorely wanted. Different companies usually deal with export controls and sanctions from Washington D.C.
Whereas some may query whether or not the agency can keep its success, Hong Kong managing associate Wendy Wysong stated the agency is dedicated to staying. “We’re not going wherever,” she stated.
In the meantime, the rising authorized market in Singapore has lured India’s largest full-service agency—Cyril Amarchand & Mangaldas. In its first-ever foray abroad, Cyril Amarchand is opening a representative office in Singapore with plans to use for a overseas authorized apply. The transfer seems to make sense. As Jessica Seah writes, Singapore ranked highest by way of overseas direct funding into India for the 2019–2020 fiscal yr, accounting for about 30% of overseas direct funding influx. And disputes are additionally a giant focus: Of all of the worldwide instances dealt with by the Singapore Worldwide Arbitration Centre in 2019, Indian events accounted for almost all.
Talking of arbitration, Hong Kong has been publicly disputing reports that Hong Kong’s position as a hub for international arbitration is in jeopardy, as firms are contemplating taking Hong Kong out of governing legislation and arbitration clauses in authorized contracts due to China’s imposition of the nationwide safety legislation and doubts that the rule of legislation in Hong Kong will prevail. The Legislation Society of Hong Kong issued a press release touting the jurisdiction for arbitration and defending the independence of the judiciary. As well as, the Hong Kong Secretary for Justice, Teresa Cheng, wrote a letter to The Monetary Instances saying that regardless of the violence that Hong Kong skilled in 2019, the variety of instances dealt with by the Hong Kong Arbitration Centre in 2020 had elevated—an endorsement, she stated, of town’s repute as an “efficient and impartial worldwide authorized hub.”
Cheng, who’s a former Hong Kong Worldwide Arbitration Centre chair, can also be planning to make a presentation in a webinar later this month the place promoters say she is going to stress that Hong Kong is unmatched in offering deal-making and dispute decision providers within the Asia-Pacific area. The title of the webinar is, “Why Hong Kong is Irreplaceable.”
A brand new version of The World Lawyer is printed each Monday. Enroll here to obtain it as a weekly e-mail. And please be at liberty to succeed in out to me at [email protected].
[ad_2]
Source link
