Comments Follow Debate At The Lawyer’s In-House Financial Services Conference

Lawyers working within financial services have a huge opportunity to accelerate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs within their businesses and take a lead on ensuring they are embedded culturally and relate to organisational purpose, says Vicky Brackett, Irwin Mitchell’s Group Chief Commercial Officer.

Vicky says ESG should be an important part of strategic planning, but warns that we all now need to move from commitment to action.

Vicky’s comments follow The Lawyer magazine’s In-House Financial Services Conference where she chaired and moderated a keynote event – ‘How can the financial services sector lead on ESG.’

The discussion examined how far ESG is integral to financial performance and how it has the potential to enhance market position, promote brand reputation, while preparing for regulatory developments.

The other speakers were Alexis Alexander from Liberis, Timo Matthias Spitzer from Banco Santander, Gordon Charlton, Morgan Stanley and Andrew Dixon-Smith at Standard Chartered Bank.

The latest insights from these leading lawyers about the importance and value of ESG to the Financial Services sector can be watched here.

Expert Opinion

“There’s no doubt that ESG is now front and centre for all businesses and it is something that we at Irwin Mitchell take very seriously as a responsible business.

“ESG is a value creator that is developing at pace and increasingly linked to financial performance, equity value and shareholder sentiment.

“The Financial Services sector, along with all other businesses, is grappling with the homogeneity of standards and metrics and the GCs within an organisation can help businesses to think about risk weightings, evidence measures and scoring of clients against agreed data.

“ESG should be an important part of strategic planning with a positive upside from a brand and reputation point of view. However we all now need to move from commitment to action and lawyers can lead on that ensuring ESG is embedded culturally and informs and relates to purpose.

“It is an interesting junction for the relationship of CEO and GC as the GC steps up increasingly to act as partner to the business ensuring that it fulfils its objectives in a legally and ethically sounds manner.”
Victoria Brackett - Group Chief Commercial Officer

The Lawyer’s event was designed to meet the needs of in-house lawyers working in financial services.

It delivered webinars, roundtable discussions and themed networking sessions, focusing on both growth opportunities and potential pitfalls as the sector adjusts to the post pandemic world.