Eversheds Sutherland, Allen & Overy and Womble Bond Dickinson were among the major winners at the inaugural Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2024, which welcomed more than 400 guests to the InterContinental London Park Lane on 24 April.
The evening saw Eversheds win ESG Firm of the Year after impressing the judges with consistently strong entries across all three ESG pillars, while the firm also took home the DE&I: Law Firm Initiative of the Year for Eversheds Unlocked, which has now supported approximately 1,300 students since its inception in 2008.
ESG Champion of the Year went to Linklaters’ Rachel Barrett, who leads the global ESG practice at the magic circle firm., while Womble Bond Dickinson’s Charlotte von Sicard won ESG rising star for her pivotal role transforming her firm’s sustainability practices, improving the firm’s EcoVadis Sustainability Rating from Bronze to Gold.
The Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Law went to Irwin Mitchell’s London head Alison Eddy, for her tireless work advocating for women during her near 30-year career at the firm. She became the firm’s first female regional managing partner in 2012 and established its D&I board and led its gender equality network.
Latham & Watkins’ Paul Davies was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Environmental Award. Qualifying as Slaughter and May’s first dedicated environmental law associate in the 1990s, he is now global co-chair of the ESG practice at Latham.
Allen & Overy won two practice area awards for clean energy and sustainable finance, with impressive work across carbon credit best practice, green infrastructure securitisations, and sustainability-linked refinancings, as well as undertaking high-value mandates in the green hydrogen and battery project segments, while Clifford Chance won the practice area award for environmental protection due to its critical work with the Coalition for Rainforest Nations.
In the in-house categories, Swiss Re and Clifford Chance won DE&I: In-house Initiative of the Year, while Standard Chartered GC Sandie Okoro (pictured, above) was honoured as DE&I: Champion of the Year after last year establishing a diversity taskforce with four of the bank’s key legal advisers – Allen & Overy, Eversheds Sutherland, Simmons & Simmons and Sullivan & Cromwell – to foster diversity and inclusion within the legal profession.
Elsewhere, McDermott’s Ranajoy Basu was awarded Environmental/Sustainability: Private Practice Champion. Basu was one of the lead architects of the International Finance Facility for Education and is also lead council to the UN in launching a landmark Global Islamic Fund for Refugees.
Katharine Landells, family partner at Withers, won Private Practice Champion of the year for her work to improve the gender balance of barristers conducting private financial dispute resolution meetings.
At the Bar, winners included 3PB’s Alice de Coverley, who took the Disability/Neurodiversity: Bar Champion of the Year award, while the Ethnicity: Champion of the year award went to Elaine Banton at 7BR.
Legal 500 UK ESG Awards winners in full:
Best Environmental/Sustainability Strategy – The Legal Charter 1.5
Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Clean Energy – Allen & Overy
Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Environmental protection – Clifford Chance
Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Sustainable finance – Allen & Overy
Environmental/Sustainability: In-house Champion (individual) – Gurdeep Boparai, Coventry Building Society
Environmental/Sustainability: Bar Champion (individual) – Estelle Dehon KC, Cornerstone Barristers
Environmental/Sustainability: Private practice champion (internal) – Jon Bower, Womble Bond Dickinson
Environmental/Sustainability: Private practice champion (client-side) – Ranajoy Basu, McDermott
Disability/Neurodiversity: Best initiative to Attract and Retain talent – Burges Salmon
Disability/Neurodiversity: Private Practice Champion of the year (Individual) – Francesca Cadoux-Hudon – Stephenson Harwood
Disability/Neurodiversity: Bar Champion of the year (individual) – Alice de Coverley, 3PB
Ethnicity: Champion of the year (Individual) – Elaine Banton, 7BR
Ethnicity: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent – Burges Salmon
Governance: Initiative/Team of the Year – Accenture
LGBTQ+: Initiative of the Year – Osborne Clarke
LGBTQ+: Champion of the Year (Individual) – Oscar Davies, Garden Court Chambers
Lifetime achievement award (women in law) – Alison Eddy, Irwin Mitchell
Lifetime achievement award (environmental) – Paul Davies, Latham & Watkins
Mental health & wellbeing Initiative of the Year – Weightmans
Pro bono initiative of the year – Fifth Day
Social Mobility: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent – City Century
Social Mobility: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent (outside London) – Browne Jacobson
Social Mobility: Private Practice Champion of the Year (individual) – Jacky Kelly and Rob Powell, Weil
Social Mobility: Bar Champion of the Year (individual) – Nick Vineall KC, 4 Pump Court
Women in Law: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent – Dentons
Women in Law: Best Initiative to Improve Female Representation within Senior Ranks – Osborne Clarke
Women in Law: Private Practice Champion of the year (individual) – Katherine Landells – Withers
Women in Law: Bar Champion of the year (Individual) – Lucy Barbet, 11KBW
DE&I: In-house Initiative of the Year – Swiss Re and Clifford Chance
DE&I: Law Firm Initiative of the Year – Eversheds Sutherland
DE&I: Champion of the Year (individual) – Sandie Okoro, Standard Chartered
DE&I: Rising Star of the Year – Akil Hunte, PPL
ESG: Firm of the Year- Eversheds Sutherland
ESG: Champion of the Year (individual) – Rachel Barrett, Linklaters
ESG rising star- Charlotte von Sicard, Womble Bond Dickinson
Social mobility: In-house Champion of the year (individual) – Barry Matthews, Pennon Group
Disability/Neurodiversity: In-house Champion of the year (individual) — Matthew Yates, Whitbread
Women in Law: In-house Champion of the year (Individual) — Kirin Kalsi, E.ON UK
