Event information
Following last year’s successful inaugural edition, The Legal 500’s Green Summit Singapore is set to make a highly anticipated return in 2024, promising an exciting program focused on the legal sector’s commitment to facilitating a crucial green transition. The summit features high-profile speakers, including legal experts, prominent figures in sustainability. Their insights and experiences will provide a broader perspective on the legal sector’s role in driving environmental responsibility.
Throughout the event, attendees will gain insights into the evolution of General Counsels (GCs) and their adaptive strategies in response to the burgeoning focus on sustainability policies. Given the regional context, attendees can also expect discussions tailored to the specific ESG risks and opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia. This awareness is crucial for in-house lawyers to advise their organisations effectively and ensure compliance with evolving environmental regulations.
The Green Summit Singapore 2024 pledges not only distinguished speakers but also ample time for dynamic discussions and debates surrounding one of the most critical issues of our era. The event closes with a networking opportunity, allowing attendees to connect with peers, industry leaders, and sustainability experts, towards the exchange of ideas, best practices and potential collaborations in the realm of sustainable legal practices.
Agenda
2.30pm – 3.00pm Arrival and Registration
3.00pm – 3.15pm Welcome Address and Opening Remarks
- Francisco Castro, senior research analyst, The Legal 500
- Jerry Koh, managing partner, Allen & Gledhill
3.15pm – 3.30pm Virtual signing of memorandum of understanding between A&G and GRI
- Eelco van der Enden, chief executive officer, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
- Jerry Koh, managing partner, Allen & Gledhill
3.30pm – 4.30pm The role of in-house legal departments in the accelerating transition to net-zero
In-house legal departments play a pivotal role in the swift movement toward achieving net-zero goals. They navigate through legal challenges, advise on science-based targets, and ensure transparency in carbon offsetting. With a focus on accountability and action, in-house counsel contribute significantly to their businesses’ commitments and sustainability efforts in the ongoing transition.
- Moderated by Adrian Ang, co-head of FinTech practice and ESG & public policy practice, Allen & Gledhill
- Eelco van der Enden, chief executive officer, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
- Benjamin Goss, head of legal, sustainable finance, project and export finance, Standard Chartered Bank
- Lily Tsen, general counsel, Amcor
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Zainab Akram, director, compliance and ESG, Telenor
4.30pm – 5.30pm ESG and sustainability in 2024: what are the expectations for companies, and what can in-house lawyers expect with the changing regulatory landscape in ASEAN
More and more every year, in-house lawyers both need and want to stay on top of any new update on ESG and sustainability issues that concern them, whether it is new regulations, innovations, tools or trends. Most recently, the evolving nature of ESG regulations have taken centre stage, presenting diverse challenges for most industries in the region. The changing ESG regulatory landscape in ASEAN is a key development for in-house counsel to expect for 2024, and this panel seeks to explore the expectations for companies and their in-house lawyers in navigating this changing landscape.
- Moderated by Elsa Chen, partner, co-Head of ESG & public policy practice & regional co-Head of competition and foreign investment review practice, Allen & Gledhill
- Sim Ting, general counsel, GenZero
- Peggy Lim, head of legal, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Wider Asia, Haleon
- Jonathan Ooi, chief legal officer and company secretary, Singapore Post
5.30pm – 5.35pm Closing remarks
- Elsa Chen, partner, co-Head of ESG & public policy practice & regional co-Head of competition and foreign investment review practice, Allen & Gledhill
5.35pm – 6.30pm Networking Drinks
Speakers
Francisco Castro, senior research analyst, The Legal 500
Francisco joined the Legal 500’s GC Powerlist series in August 2022. As part of its in-house legal research team, Francisco’s work focuses on researching, editing and interviewing some of the most prominent and exceptional in-house counsel of some of the largest companies in the world. He has also played a part in the hosting of the Legal 500 webinar series, which provides market-leading expertise on a distinctive digital platform. Additionally, Francisco has extensive research experience in other fields, such as Public Policy, Higher Education and International Law. Other scientific areas of interest include International Relations, Geopolitics and International Humanitarian Law. Francisco is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Jerry Koh, managing partner, Allen & Gledhill
Jerry is Managing Partner of Allen & Gledhill LLP. Jerry has been practising as a corporate lawyer since 1993. Jerry’s main areas of practice cover capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and investment funds; and he has advised on numerous international and domestic transactions. Jerry joined the Firm as a Partner in 2001 from an international firm in Hong Kong.
Jerry heads the Firm’s REITs Practice and Invest Funds Practice. He was formerly Co-Head of the Financial Services Department, Deputy Managing Partner and Joint Managing Partner of the Firm prior to assuming the current role of Managing Partner.
Jerry is the leading authority on REITs and business trusts, and has been involved in the listing of almost all the REITs and business trusts in the Singapore market. He was the lead counsel of Hutchinson Port Holding Trust in the largest IPO in South-east Asia to date. Jerry has also been involved in almost all the secondary offerings and convertible bond issues by Singapore REITs and business trusts. He has further advised on a number of REIT listings in Malaysia as international counsel.
Eelco van der Enden, chief executive officer, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Responsibility for overseeing GRI’s strategic work program and organizational management.
Eelco joined GRI as CEO in January 2022 from multinational professional services network PwC, where he was Global ESG Platform Leader for Tax, Legal, People & Organisation Services. The author of over 50 published articles on governance and reporting, he has held a range of senior roles with listed companies, including as head of treasury, risk management and tax.
From 2019 to 2021, Eelco served on the GRI Board of Directors while he was previously a member of the Technical Committee that developed the GRI Tax Standard (GRI 207), and Chair of the Tax Policy Group of Accountancy Europe.
Elsa Chen, partner, co-head of ESG & public policy practice & regional co-head of competition & foreign investment review practice, Allen & Gledhill
Elsa is Regional Co-Head of the Firm’s Competition & Foreign Investment Review Practice, and Co-Head of its ESG & Public Policy Practice. Her ESG and public policy experience ranges from assisting clients to map out ESG trends and implications, policy drafting, advocacy, and assisting on legislative changes.
As Regional Co-Head of the Competition & Foreign Investment Review Practice, Elsa also advises clients on the antitrust, consumer protection and public policy aspects of ESG matters, including collaboration agreements, merger control, and greenwashing claims. In 2020, Global Competition Review named Elsa as one of the world’s top 40 antitrust practitioners under the age of 40, and the only economist named in Asia, in its quadrennial 40 under 40 survey. She is regularly cited as a Thought Leader by Who’s Who Legal: Competition. She is cited by clients in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2023 as “very responsive, excellent in addressing client’s questions and good at handling complex issues with care and sensitivity”, offering “sound advice on complex issues”, and “[her] star continues to rise. She has her finger on the pulse of cases and manages to cut through the issues and zooms into what matters”.
Elsa joined the Firm in 2007, and was previously from the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, and also a pioneer member of the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS), now known as the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS).
Benjamin Goss, head of legal, sustainable finance, project and export finance, Standard Chartered Bank
Ben is responsible for advising, and managing the legal issues associated with, the Sustainable Finance business and the Project & Export Finance business at Standard Chartered Bank. Ben is based in Singapore and previously worked in the Singapore and Dubai offices of Clifford Chance LLP. He represents Standard Chartered Bank on the LMA ESG Committee and on the APLMA Project Finance Committee.
Adrian Ang, co-head of the fintech practice and ESG and public policy practice, Allen & Gledhill
Adrian is a Partner in the Financial Services Department and is Co-Head of both the FinTech Practice and the ESG & Public Policy Practice.
Adrian’s practice encompasses advising clients on regulatory matters affecting the financial services industry including, licensing matters, the setting up of payment services, the distribution of financial products, outsourcing arrangements and conduct of business requirements.
Adrian has been active in the FinTech sphere, being involved in contributing to policy formation and the enactment of FinTech related legislation. Adrian has advised on a variety of FinTech models including payment systems, equity and debt crowdfunding platforms, P2P lending platforms, online lending intermediary based platforms, online money transfer systems, robo-advisors, virtual stored value facility providers, initial coin offering structures, security token exchanges, digital payment token exchanges services relating to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies (e.g. custodial and non-custodial wallets, trading platforms), and the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He was also appointed as an EXCO member of the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), and is the only lawyer in private practice on the SFA EXCO.
In the sphere of public policy, Adrian has assisted with the consideration and roll-out of new policies affecting the financial industry and is frequently involved in the coordination and provision of industry views on policy and regulatory matters in relation to both private and public consultations.
Sim Ting, general counsel, GenZero
Ting is Head-Designate of the Corporate Services Group at GenZero. She holds the role of General Counsel concurrently, where she provides leadership on legal support for climate investments, compliance and corporate governance matters.
Before GenZero, she was at Shell for around 13 years, where she was the lead lawyer for significant investments, assets and projects in the energy value chain which spans across the upstream, LNG, gas, downstream and decarbonisation space.
Ting started off in private practice, focusing on project finance and M&A work. She has broad in-house experience across industries such as IT, F&B, printing and hospitality.
Ting graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Laws and has been admitted to practice law in Singapore.
Peggy Lim, head of legal, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Wider Asia, Haleon
Peggy is currently Haleon’s Head of Legal, Wider Asia Region and is a member of the Legal, Compliance and Corporate Secretariat Leadership Team of Haleon. As a member of the Leadership Team, she is involved in helping to shape the strategy and mission of Haleon’s Legal, Compliance and Corporate function. In addition, she sits on several commercial leadership teams and oversees the legal support to Haleon’s business and operations across Wider Asia (ANZ, India-Subcontinent, Japan, Korea, South East Asia and Taiwan) from their R&D to manufacturing to marketing and sales activities.
Prior to Haleon’s demerger from GlaxoSmithKline in 2022, Peggy held various roles as part of the Legal team of GlaxoSmithKline overseeing legal support to the Pharmaceutical and Vaccines business across parts of Asia Pacific, GSK Asia regional headquarter, GSK’s global nutritionals and systemic pain category and she also served on their Legal Digital Centre of Excellence. Peggy is an alumni of GSK’s Asia Leadership Program and was instrumental in building up a legal team across Asia.
Before joining GSK, Peggy was the Asia Pacific counsel of a European company in the oil and gas industry. Peggy started her career in private practice as a litigator in a Singapore law firm before switching to corporate work focusing on mergers and acquisitions and capital market work.
Peggy graduated from the National University of Singapore’s law school.
Jonathan Ooi, chief legal officer and company secretary, Singapore Post
Mr Jonathan Ooi joined SingPost in January 2019 and is the Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, leading the Group Legal, Compliance and Corporate Secretariat functions. Together with his team, Jonathan is responsible for the legal advisory and compliance governance of the Group. Jonathan was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 2000 and has more than 20 years of legal and company secretarial experience, including serving as in-house counsel in major listed companies in Singapore. Jonathan has a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the National University of Singapore and a Masters of Laws from the University of Virginia in the United States.
Lily Tsen, general counsel, Amcor
An empathetic, pragmatic, client-centric and solutions-focused leader, business partner and executive (who happens to be a lawyer), Lily Tsen has been a part of Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific’s in-house legal team for almost a decade. As regional General Counsel, she has overall responsibility for the legal team in Asia Pacific and is particularly noted for her skills as a thoughtful, impactful and influential leader, effective problem solver, staunch advocate, tactful negotiator, and strategic thinker.
Prior to her in-house legal career, she was a lawyer for highly regarded law firms in her native Australia, and, as evidence of her long-term commitment to access to justice and access to education, she supported and lead a myriad of pro bono, community and volunteer causes. In this category, Tsen was leader of and championed the Firm Pro Bono Mentoring program at the University of Sydney Law School, volunteered with homeless persons legal clinics, was a National Committee Member and State Leader of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, and the Convener for Peace, Human Security for the Australian Federation of Graduate Women. She now sits on the Board of the Singapore Association of Corporate Counsel where she will spearhead exciting professional development, DE&I, grassroots and community initiatives.
Lily loves her family, outdoor activities, cooking, travel, learning, and people in general, and believes that awareness is the greatest agent for change.
Zainab Akram, director, compliance and ESG, Telenor Procurement Company
Zainab is a legal professional with expertise in procurement contracts, compliance and ESG. As Director, head of ESG she and her team are responsible for managing business partner risks and compliance to help ensure Telenor’s high-standards and no-compromise policy on ethical and sustainable business practices.
Zainab also plays an important role in influencing and driving the adoption of science-based targets across Telenor’s supplier base through procurement processes.
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Allen & Gledhill is an award-winning full-service law firm providing legal services to a wide range of premier clients, including local and multinational corporations and financial institutions in Asia. The Firm is consistently ranked as a market leader in the region, having been involved in a number of challenging, complex and significant deals, many of which are the first of its kind. The Firm’s reputation for high-quality advice is regularly affirmed by the strong rankings in leading publications, and by the various awards and accolades. With a growing network of associate firms and offices, it is well-placed to advise clients on their business interests in Singapore and beyond, on matters involving the Asia region. With offices in Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam and China, as well as associate firms in Malaysia (Rahmat Lim & Partners) and Indonesia (AGI Legal), the Allen & Gledhill network, collectively known as A&G Asia, has over 600 lawyers, making it one of the largest law firms in the region.