By Brad Rosen, J.D.
Along with the unprecedented growth in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing in recent years, complex legal issues and concerns associated with ESG have also emerged. In the past year, these issues and concerns have only been amplified with growing politicization and the rapid emergence of the anti-ESG movement. As a result, law firms have been ramping up and positioning themselves to respond to increasing demand for ESG expertise by establishing and growing ESG practice groups and teams.
In this first installment of The ESG Ready Lawyer, Perkins Coie partners, Allison Handy and Gwen Williamson, describe their firm’s cutting edge ESG practice, its distinctive capabilities, and the firm’s approach to ESG matters generally. Handy and Williamson also recount their own unique journeys in and around the ESG world.
Moreover, Handy and Williamson share their insights in connection with the growing anti-ESG movement that seeks to undermine most ESG-oriented initiatives, and how that has impacted their work as well as the counsel they provide to clients. The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), possibly the most consequential climate legislation ever passed in the U.S, is also discussed.
You can read the first installment of The ESG Ready Lawyer here.