‘I’ve acted for every villain you can name’: Lessons in ESG from its trailblazers – and how to dodge the greenwashing bullet

Big Law came late to the ESG party compared to regulated financial services industries, with many law firms only getting the memo as recently as the pandemic.

At the forefront of this movement for approaching 20 years are professor Paul Watchman, senior UN legal adviser and former Freshfields partner, and Paul Clements-Hunt, founder of The Blended Capital Group, a former adviser to the UN on sustainable finance and the person who coined the term ESG. Legal Business sat down with these trailblazers to discuss why lawyers must embrace good corporate citizenship.