Recruiting in a (Climate) Crisis: Five Important Climate Transition and ESG Roles Emerging in the Legal Sector
This is a Guest Post written by our strategic alliance partners, Cyan Partners which you can also read here.
In April last year, the Law Society released its ground-breaking Climate Change Guidance, aimed at helping law firms and solicitors adapt to current and future climate risks and opportunities. To mark the first anniversary of the Guidance, we provide our insights on five important legal sector roles requiring ESG and climate risk expertise in the (very near) future.
The Guidance stresses the importance of law firms monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet science-based targets and transparently disclosing and reporting their climate impacts. It warns against greenwashing and urges firms to reduce “advised” emissions resulting indirectly from the legal advice and services they provide. The Guidance also addresses how solicitors’ professional duties translate into a requirement to understand and advise on climate-related risks – emphasising the need for ongoing training and education in the profession. Law firms must treat climate risks as seriously as financial performance and legal compliance issues.
What does this mean for solicitors and the legal sector more widely? Law firms will need to change how they approach ongoing training and professional development, recalibrate their risk & compliance and overall strategic functions, and integrate scientific expertise into their legal services offering. We will likely see significant changes to the in-house side of the profession as well, with businesses increasingly requiring specialist ESG-focused Legal Counsel.
Understanding how the Law Society’s Climate Change Guidance affects the skill sets the legal sector needs to prepare for the climate-related changes and challenges to come can help law firms prepare from a recruitment perspective and assist lawyers to adequately upskill themselves.
Five Important Climate Transition and ESG Roles Emerging in the Legal Industry
1. Specialist In-House ESG Corporate Counsel
The Law Society’s Climate Change Guidance emphasises the important role in-house lawyers will play in transitioning to a more climate-resilient future. They are, after all, “closer to the commercial objectives of their organisation”, meaning they can influence and drive change in their employer’s strategy and operations – raising issues with their organisation’s adherence to its corporate sustainability and climate pledges along the way.
To an extent, all in-house commercial lawyers will be expected to demonstrate a working knowledge of ESG issues. Businesses across all industries will increasingly require in-house counsel who can deal with the constantly evolving ESG and sustainability-related regulatory demands and legislative changes. Most corporates will therefore benefit from hiring specialist ESG Legal Counsel with a more focused remit.
2. Professional Support Lawyers (PSLs) with ESG and Climate Law Knowledge
On the private practice side, many of the Law Society’s recommendations will require substantial training and upskilling of individual solicitors. For instance, to help reduce their “advised” emissions, lawyers must understand the environmental and carbon impact of their transactions and cases, and learn to manage the inevitable conflicts between their firm’s sustainability strategies and client demands.
Solicitors must be competent to advise on climate-related risks and opportunities affecting various industries and companies, as they will play a greater role in helping clients implement net-zero transition strategies. The Guidance specifically advises in-house lawyers to assess whether their external legal advisers have the relevant skills to act on a retainer requiring climate change expertise – implying law firms may lose work if they do not have the necessary skills.
Integrating specialist PSL and knowledge lawyers with ESG and climate expertise therefore becomes essential for law firms to remain competitive. PSLs can help roll out comprehensive and targeted training and professional development programmes for all legal staff in a firm. They can also offer climate and ESG-focused expertise to clients. Last but not least, PSLs act as horizon scanners – analysing future changes and issues in the climate and ESG sphere affecting how the firm advises its clients.
3. Law Firm General Counsel (GC) and Risk & Compliance Teams with ESG Capabilities
The Law Society’s Guidance underscores the imperative for law firms to monitor and reduce GHG emissions, set science-based targets, and adhere to various climate-impact disclosure frameworks. This push for greater climate accountability within the legal industry means law firms will need their risk and compliance and General Counsel teams to have the appropriate skills to navigate the internal changes required and mitigate key transition risks.
Law firm GCs are increasingly getting involved in developing their firm’s ESG strategy. They will greatly benefit from bringing individuals with particular ESG expertise into their in-house teams who can develop internal policies to guide firm-wide emissions reduction efforts, track performance against targets, and effectively communicate the firm’s ESG strategy to stakeholders while mitigating greenwashing risks (another area which the Law Society considers law firms must improve on). Integrating this expertise can also help solicitors understand the impact of climate change on their professional duties – those relating specifically to clients (like the duty to disclose and warn clients of climate-related risks) and wider society (like the importance of maintaining public trust in the profession).
4. Experts and Non-Law Professionals
Law firms will benefit from embedding specialised skills beyond traditional legal expertise in their businesses. For example, professionals with backgrounds in environmental science, climate risk modelling, sustainability analysis, data gathering and responsible business practice can predict and anticipate climate-related physical and legal risks for law firms and their clients. This expertise aligns with the Law Society’s recommendation for solicitors to advise their clients on both the legal and physical climate risks and challenges arising from a particular matter or transaction.
5. Board and C-Suite
Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) can facilitate the transformation law firms need to implement the Law Society’s Guidance. Read more about why and how CSOs are becoming an important law firm function in our January article.
The legal sector is starting to identify the skills and expertise it needs to bring the Law Society’s vision for a more climate-competent legal sector to life. Please contact us if you are an HR Professional or Recruitment Partner seeking guidance on these issues, or a sustainability, ESG and environmental lawyer or other professional looking for advice on your career trajectory and suitable roles.
Cyan Partners is a respected legal recruitment business with extensive industry experience. We specialise in senior-level recruitment, including Partners, law firm General Counsel, and in-house legal positions. Chris Cayley has extensive experience in placing senior in-house lawyers and GCs and leads our sustainability and climate impact initiatives. Additionally, our partnership with Sangeet Kaur of Pro Lawyers ESG (a specialist sustainability and impact roles recruitment brand) means we can help law firms and businesses navigate our rapidly changing world.
Get in touch with Chris or Sangeet today to find out how to attract the talent you need to build a more climate-resilient business.
