Leading GCs From Across The World Share Advice And Experiences On Key Issue

In-house lawyers that are self-critical and who prioritise collaboration, authenticity and transparency, will be best placed to tackle the issues and opportunities associated with ESG, according to debate of leading GCs organised by Legal 500.

Chaired by Victoria Brackett, Group Chief Commercial Officer at Irwin Mitchell, the virtual event took place during COP26 in November 2021 and included a panel of leading GCs.

The in-house lawyers involved in the webinar were Damian Olthoff at ROS Holdings; Lawson Crawford at UCL Business; Ashley Scott from Lime and Mark Maurice-Jones at Nestle.

The panel were joined by Irwin Mitchell IP partner and Head of its US desk, Georgie Collins, and Harveen Kaur, digital editor at GC magazine.

• Issues that that were discussed during the hour-long debate included: How should GCs guide and advice their Board and ‘C-Suite’ through the issues associated with ESG;
• Why is sustainability so important and what are the commercial drivers;
• ESG investment priorities;
• Levels of collaboration between GCs and ways in which further knowledge can be gained;
• How the Coronavirus pandemic has impacted on the ESG agenda.

Expert Opinion

“In house lawyers are pivotal to the implementation of ESG strategies and this was a really valuable discussion on a key issue for the GC community.

“Different organisations are at different stages of their ESG journey and I think it is fair to say that no organisation can claim to be an expert in it or say they have all the answers.

“The discussion showed how diverse the topic is and although ESG clearly means different things to different organisations, it was fascinating to see during this discussion that there is a lot of commonality and that a lot can be gained through collaboration.”
Victoria Brackett - Group Chief Commercial Officer

Together with Legal 500 publication, GC magazine, earlier this year Irwin Mitchell commissioned and produced the ‘ESG Risk Research Survey Report: 2021’. The research documented the thoughts and opinions of more than 190 in-house lawyers across Europe and the United States. Many of the findings of this study were discussed during the discussion.

Watch Corporate Accountability: A General Counsel’s Guide To Tackling ESG.