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13 October 2023 / Andrew Magowan
Issue: 8044 / Categories: Features , Profession , ESG
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ESG requires bravery—otherwise you’re greenwashing

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Bravery is the key to ensuring you don’t end up daubed in greenwash, says Andrew Magowan
  • Focusing on three key things when evaluating anything from a sustainability perspective helps. These are: prioritising; asking questions; communicating openly & honestly.
  • Purely focusing on rules and regulation can be, at best, a wasted opportunity. But at worst, it’s a dereliction of our duties as lawyers.

Question: what is a lawyer’s natural habitat? Where are they generally most comfortable?

I’m sure there’ll be a range of answers among everyone reading this. But I reckon a fair number will picture lawyers being happy in detail—happy in interpreting, making sense of and applying complicated, technical requirements. After all, isn’t that what all those years of reviewing cases and legislation trained us all to do?

And there is a lot of truth in that. When I see lawyers involved in sustainability, I see them getting bogged down in the ‘detail’ of helping businesses meet ever increasing reporting obligations in each of the jurisdictions they’re operating in.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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