A UN Global Compact signatory and founding member of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP is highly regarded for its ESG work in clean energy, sustainable finance, climate change litigation and compliance. The firm’s global presence allows it to draw from experts around the world which has been advantageous in establishing its ESG Solutions team co-led by Diane Gilhooley; the dedicated practice aims to keep clients up to date with the evolving ESG regulatory landscape and avoid greenwashing allegations.

The firm works with banks and institutions including HSBC and Aviva on large green loans with key CO2 emissions reductions targets. For Tesco PLC Pension Scheme the firm is also helping to build its ESG governance infrastructure.

In the renewable energy space, James Trafford led the team advising on the 875MW offshore wind farm Triton Knoll, which once complete will be one of the largest in the world meeting the electricity needs of 800,000 homes a year. Trafford also has particular expertise regarding energy efficiency in buildings.

Energy partner Ben Brown specialises in carbon offsetting and is advising GlaxoSmithKline on its engagement with the LEAF Coalition project which plans to put a halt to deforestation through large-scale tropical forest protection.

The firm’s GHG reduction programme has been accredited by the Science Based Targets initiative. In order to engage its employees, the firm recently launched a sustainability challenge focusing on individual lifestyle changes logged onto the external platform Do Nation. Overall, the firm has pledged to save enough carbon to complete 12.5 car journeys around the world.

Eversheds Sutherland’s Global ESG group brings together more than 200 practitioners from various disciplines across the firm’s global footprint to support clients with their environmental, social and governance objectives wherever the clients may be on their ESG journey.

A great many of our lawyers are recognised leaders in their field in ESG and in the climate change space. A number of our team across the globe and the UK have been involved in ground-breaking policy and transactional work, including in the clean energy sector and sustainability in financial services. In addition, a number of our experts in the UK regularly deliver training and participate in webinar and podcasts on sustainability and ESG. Many are also active members of steering committees and taskforces on ES related issues and on climate change.

Our Global ESG group is led by Global Co-Heads Diane Gilhooley and Herbert Short:

In addition to her role as Global Co-Head of ESG, Diane Gilhooley is also the Global Head of the Eversheds Sutherland Employment, Labour and Pensions Practice, leading the group of more than 200 employment, labour and pensions lawyers. She is also a member of the firm’s Senior Management Team and International Steering Group. Diane is based in the UK.

In addition to his role as Global Co-Head of ESG, Herbert Short also serves as the firm’s International Partner as well as Head of Debt Capital Markets. He previously served as the US Energy Practice Group Leader and Co-Head of the Eversheds Sutherland Global Energy Group. Herbert is based in the US.

Eversheds Sutherland also has a comprehensive, global Responsible Business strategy led by our Co-CEOs, Lee Ranson and Mark Wasserman, which incorporates the broader principles of ESG. The details of our Responsible Business strategy are available at: https://responsiblebusiness.eversheds-sutherland.com.

Eversheds Sutherland’s purpose is to help our clients, our people and our communities thrive. To achieve this goal we have embedded sustainability and ESG practices across the firm.

Recognising that for many of our clients, awareness and understanding of ESG issues at a global and local level is necessary in order to enhance value while mitigating risk, we harness expertise and coordinate input from subject matter experts around the globe, covering all disciplines and jurisdictions.

Some of the areas on which our Global ESG Group advises include:

Leadership and governance:

• • board composition, structure and executive pay
  • board members’ ESG-related duties of care

Decarbonization:

• • carbon offsetting
  • clean energy
  • emissions trading
  • e-mobility and sustainable transport

Social and human capital:

• • business and human rights
  • data privacy and information
  • diversity and inclusion
  • employee benefits and executive compensation
  • employee/worker protection

Business model and innovation:

• • copyrights, patents and trademarks
  • M&A and corporate transactions
  • supply chain procurement
  • timberland

Financial services:

• • sustainable banking, finance and debt capital markets
  • sustainability-related disclosure obligations in the FS sector

Regulatory compliance and reporting:

• • antitrust law compliance
  • climate change litigation and regulatory action
  • environmental compliance and liability
  • sustainable reporting obligations for corporations
  • tax compliance

In addition to how we help our clients achieve their ESG goals, we also have a comprehensive, global Responsible Business strategy which incorporates the broader principles of ESG. We focus our Responsible Business initiatives in the areas of People, Community, Environment, and Governance & Ethics. As a signatory to the UN Global Compact, we support the ten principles of the Global Compact on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, and we are committed to making the UN Global Compact and its principles part of our firm’s purpose, strategy, culture, and day-to-day operations, and to engage in collaborative projects which advance the broader development goals of the United Nations, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals.

Additionally, we are proud to be affiliated with collaborative efforts to respond to the global climate change challenge, including: establishing a Net Zero by 2050 or earlier commitment; becoming the first global law firm to be accredited by the Good Business Charter; supporting Business Ambition for 1.5°C through the Science Based Targets initiative; and becoming a founding member of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, and the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact, among other initiatives.

Has your firm established a dedicated ESG/climate change/sustainability practice, team or task force?

Yes, our Global ESG team combines the expertise of lawyers across all practice areas, sectors  and regions. Our ESG Strategy Team brings all the expertise together to provide a holistic approach whilst the ESG Solutions Team provides the specialisms to deliver solutions to clients.

What type of work do you handle in connection with “green change”?

We handle the full-range of work on climate change, energy transition and sustainability and have done for many years.

We handle work in such related areas as:

• Clean energy/renewable energy projects and Energy Transition projects including carbon capture and sequestration; wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies; and clean fuels, including hydrogen, biodiesel and other alternative fuels
• Divestment/retirement of fossil fuel-reliant assets or investments
• Procurement of renewable energy by corporations and Implementation of on-site electric and steam generation solutions
• Issuance of sustainable finance products, such as green bonds and sustainable bonds
• Emissions trading
• Reforestation and timber transactions, including the creation of carbon offsets through timberlands
• Climate-related disputes and litigation
• Advising on climate-related disclosures
• Electric vehicles and sustainable transportation
• Carbon trading and the generation, procurement and trading of other environmental credits

Would you like to highlight a particular area of strength?

Our strength lies in the breadth and depth of the ESG-related services we are able to offer to our clients, wherever they are based, and our long-standing experience in doing so. Using our expertise and experience, we are able to help our clients in all areas, including measuring and communicating compliance and risk levels, addressing shareholder concerns and complying with regulation.

Has your firm implemented any internal best practises?

The firm’s commitment manifests itself through a responsible business strategy, including the aim to be net zero by 2050 at the latest and membership in various climate action and sustainability-related networks and initiatives. For instance, the firm is one of the founders of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance.

The firm engages all its people in its environmental sustainability strategy and facilitates best practice and innovation across the firm. For example, we ran an environmental challenge from November 2021 to January 2022. Individuals sign up to make small changes to their personal behaviour, using an external platform called Do Nation which measures the carbon saved both individually and collectively over the course of the challenge.

Has your firm joined any external ESG-related projects, networks or initiatives?

Yes. We are proud to be affiliated with collaborative efforts to respond to the global climate change challenge, including being the first global law firm to be accredited by the Good Business Charter and participating in the UN Global Compact. We are also supporters of Business Ambition for 1.5°C through the Science Based Targets initiative.

In addition, we are founding members of a number of groups that collaborate and share best practice in relation to environmental impact, including the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL). We are a member of a number of networks and groups, including the Legal Sustainability Alliance, the Sustainable Recruitment Alliance, The Chancery Lane Project and The Legal Renewables Initiative.

The firm is also committed to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and are proud that the firm’s GHG programme has been accredited by the Science Based Targets initiative.

What are your firm’s ESG-related goals?

Eversheds Sutherland has a comprehensive, global Responsible Business strategy led by our Co-CEOs, Lee Ranson and Mark Wasserman, which incorporates the broader principles of ESG. Details of our strategy can be found on the dedicated microsite.

Our Responsible Business strategy is underpinned by four pillars:

Environment – The firm has committed to reducing its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 or sooner and to be net zero by 2050 at the latest. These targets will be reviewed in 2022 with the intention of achieving them more quickly.

People – Focusing on DE&I, well-being and professional development and training.

Community – Focusing on pro bono work and charitable initiatives.

Governance & Ethics – Focusing on conflicts management, risk and compliance and data governance.

Is your firm involved in any relevant pro bono work?

Yes. As mentioned above, part of the firm’s Responsible Business strategy is to focus on pro bono work. Recent examples of flagship pro bono social initiative projects have focused on providing access to justice to those who do not have professional representation, including our Rule 39 Pro Bono Initiative and the Amicus project.

The Rule 39 Pro Bono Initiative aims to utilise and combine the pro bono capacity of legal experts and lawyers in large international law firms to support individuals in need of support with immigration, family reunification and right to stay applications. A team of 20 of our lawyers from our offices in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg is supporting this project.

Our lawyers around the world also support the Amicus project by volunteering their time and skills to assist Amicus in its pursuit of combating the death penalty in the US.

We also enable access to justice through our work supporting displaced persons – including providing pro bono help to Ukrainians and their families seeking resettlement in the UK, assisting and acting for former members of the Afghan judiciary who have had to flee persecution in Taliban-seized Afghanistan.

Other pro bono projects include the SolarPack project, an Ivory Coast start-up which has created a backpack equipped with a LED light to allow children in rural Africa and Asia to study when they don’t have access to electricity. Our team on this projects advises on patents, IP and distribution partnerships on a pro bono basis. In addition, our teams provide pro bono contractual, data protection, regulatory and confidentiality advice on projects including La Chaîne de l’Espoir, which is a project providing support on the building of a children’s hospital in Iraq and Krisenchat.de, which is a project supporting a crisis counselling service.

Is your firm involved in any public outreach or client education?

Yes, the firm’s work regularly includes connecting with and informing clients and local and global legal and business communities on topics within the ESG space, including publishing briefings and thought leadership reports. For example, in 2020, we released a major report on Climate Change and Corporate Value, and in 2021 we launched a follow-up report on Climate Change and the People Factor.  We also produce regular videos and podcasts on ESG-related topics and deliver presentations at industry conferences and one-on-one to clients on topics within the ESG umbrella.  Our regular client briefings and podcasts which are available on our ESG webpages.

Finally, we regularly deliver presentations at industry conferences and one-on-one to clients on topics under the ESG umbrella. For example, in 2021 and 2022 we presented panel programs at Climate Week NYC, ranging from sustainable finance to greenwashing to climate change disputes.

Have there been any recent non-confidential stand-out matters that were particularly innovative, pioneering or complex?

Yes, our significant long-standing experience in ESG-related services means that we have the ability not only to offer excellent advice and support in this area, but also to use our experience to identify innovative solutions and provide support on the full range of work, from day to day support to unique and complex projects.

A selection of stand-out matters across clean energy, sustainable finance and sustainable insurance include:

• Supporting one of the UK’s largest occupational pension schemes (over 300,000 members and £20bn of assets) to navigate its climate change reporting obligations, and to build its ESG governance infrastructure.
• Advising HSBC UK Bank plc in respect of the inaugural £300m sustainability-linked revolving facility for RS Group plc (formerly Electrocomponents PLC). The facility includes targets linked to reducing CO2 emissions.
• Advising a borrower in respect of a £150m revolving social loan facility with a syndicate of three banks, with all amounts being utilised towards funding social projects and purposes consistent with the borrower’s social loan framework.
• Advising GlaxoSmithKline in connection with its ongoing involvement in the ambitious LEAF Coalition and carbon offsetting project. The Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition’s goal is to halt deforestation by financing large scale tropical forest protection.
• Advising in relation to strategy and approach for the co-development of the Dudgeon Extension Project an offshore wind project.

When did ESG, climate change and/or sustainability become an area of focus at your firm?

Our practice in the areas of environment, energy transition, climate-change-related matters, sustainable finance, business and human rights, corporate governance and diversity and inclusion dates back many years. Our ESG teams bring together all of that long standing expertise so that we look at the issues holistically, recognising the crossover between issues.

What has driven your firm’s involvement in a green transition?

Eversheds Sutherland has a longstanding commitment to acting as a responsible business. The firm’s strategic review in 2019 included extensive consultation with the partnership, the wider firm and key clients.  A clear outcome of those consultations was a desire to place sustainability and a deeper commitment to being a responsible business at the centre of our business.

Do you have any strategic plans to expand your work or your initiatives in this area in the future?

We believe we will see greater collaboration within the legal community, both in terms of know-how and best practices. We are already seeing this with the alliances and organizations that we are a part of, such as the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and the Law Firm Sustainability Network. The response to climate change and the transition to a decarbonized economy is a complex issue, and the solution will require collaboration from multiple stakeholders – individuals, government, the private sector and service providers like our firm.

Where do you see the future of ESG/sustainability in the legal community (both in terms of legal offerings and firms’ best practices)?

We believe we will see greater collaboration within the legal community, both in terms of know-how and best practices. We are already seeing this with the alliances and organizations that we are a part of, such as the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and the Law Firm Sustainability Network. The response to climate change and the transition to a decarbonized economy is a complex issue, and the solution will require collaboration from multiple stakeholders – individuals, government, the private sector and service providers like our firm.

ESG podcasts and videos

ESG Briefings and Articles