Spotlight on Clients
2028 Ambitions
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): a fast moving and increasingly complex space
Doing business responsibly is no longer just an ethical choice, a tick box exercise or a 'nice to have'. For many of our clients, understanding how and why ESG issues create risk and value is now key to creating competitive advantage, driving long term financial performance and enhancing resilience.
Our clients must comply with current ESG laws and regulations, while having an eye to new standards coming down the track so that the right decisions and investments are made today to support future compliance. They must understand, spot and take steps to mitigate reputational and litigation risks associated with ESG issues and ensure they are well placed to meet the increasing ESG expectations of their investors, lenders, customers and business partners.
We are trusted by our clients to help them navigate the most complex environmental, social and governance risks, to think long term and to position them to take advantage of ESG-related commercial opportunities.
We have broad and deep expertise in national and regional ESG laws, regulations and best practice frameworks, in all forms of ESG-related risk management, in good corporate governance and director ESG duties. Whatever the ESG challenge, risk or opportunity, we approach every matter with a focus on the client's wider strategic objectives for growth, investment or exit.
Our latest ESG brochure sets our our capabilities and credentials - how we can help your business navigate ESG issues and tap into the opportunities of the clean energy transition. For all further information, please don't hesitate to contact Kerry Stares.
Knowing what matters
Understanding climate risk and opportunity
In February 2026, we launched our new climate literacy training programme. The training reflects both the ethical and commercial drivers for climate action, and the growing expectations our clients have of us, as they transition their organisations towards a low carbon economy.
“This is vital for our clients. It’s not just the right thing to do for the climate; we must equip our people with the right knowledge and capability if we are to advise and support our clients effectively on these important commercial issues and win the work of the future." Paul Vissian, Director of Organisational Learning & Development
To develop it, we partnered with learning platform Sustainability Unlocked to create a core climate science module, together with practice specific learning pathways to deepen our knowledge.
The online training is designed to support our lawyers to understand how climate risks and opportunities will impact our business and the businesses and investments of our clients and to integrate that thinking into our advice.
We are actively promoting it as part of our Responsible Business Strategy, and embedding learning into our practice groups, via our Knowledge Development Lawyers.
Our clients have made it clear to us that they value advisers who can get under the hood of these issues, and our climate literacy training is just one of the ways we are equipping our lawyers to advise clients and support them to achieve their sustainability objectives.”
2026/27 Responsible Business Client goals include:
- Achieving completion of the climate‑literacy training by at least 300 fee‑earners (total since launch).
- Making a significant contribution to at least three legal industry and/or client collaborations or projects focused on Responsible Business issues.
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