With continued pressure from human rights organisations and socially conscious shareholders, investors, clients and employees, there is little doubt that every law firm must have environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues at the core of its business strategy.

However, the implementation of an ESG strategy should not be a box-ticking exercise; rather, it requires firm-wide commitment and involves the full integration of ESG criteria into the strategy, operations and ethos of the firm, in relation to both the firm itself and its dealing with clients.

Increased regulation, stronger business ethics and attitudes to climate change, environmental protection, employment standards, sustainable finance, risk and governance, community engagement, corruption and human rights are evolving at an unprecedented rate. As a result, the development of robust, long-term ESG initiatives in these areas can provide law firms with manifold benefits, including the opportunity to:

gain competitive advantage;
retain their license to operate;
make cost savings due to operational improvements;
attract, engage and retain clients and employees;
increase value and service offerings to clients through advising them on their own sustainability transformation; and
enter new markets.

This Special Report looks at the business drivers for sustainability in law firms and offers a practical toolkit to guide law firms on their ESG journey. It will make essential reading for all lawyers, law firm leaders and management teams who are involved in implementing sustainability strategies at both a firm and practice group level.

Robert F van Beemen
Partner, Dicke Röell Breedveld
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-f-van-beemen-2a2a2612/

Robert F van Beemen is a partner at Dicke Röell Breedveld, a legal executive search, coaching and strategy firm in the Netherlands. His main focus is advising boutique and national independent law firms in the Benelux on market positioning, strategic reviews, ESG and international strategy formulation, and strategic business planning. He started his career in 2007 as a corporate and restructuring lawyer with a large Dutch Caribbean law firm in Curaçao. From 2014 to May 2022 Robert was a partner at Venturis Consulting Group.
Robert holds an LLM in corporate law and is an alumnus of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He is an officer of the International Bar Association Law Firm Management Committee (including the ESG working group) and an active member of the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA). He regularly publishes and speaks about ESG, international developments and the impact on the strategies and business models of law firms.

Sophie Boyer Chammard
Partner, Venturis Consulting Group
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophieboyerchammard/

Sophie Boyer Chammard, a Paris-based partner at Venturis Consulting Group, has been active in the legal market for more than 25 years. Sophie advises law firms on profitable and sustainable revenue growth strategies, and helps them to design client-centred development strategies. She accompanies firms that wish to improve their positive impact – whether social, societal and/or environmental – and include their responsibility as a core element in their profitable growth strategy. She builds on eight years’ experience as a finance and M&A lawyer, and 20 years as a strategy and business development professional, both at law firms (Clifford Chance, Gide and Hogan Lovells) and as a strategy consultant (at Andersen Consulting and independently).
Sophie holds an MBA from INSEAD, an LLB in English and French law from King’s College London and a master’s in business and tax law from the Sorbonne Paris I.