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  1. Our capabilities
  2. ESG risk and advisory
ESG risk and advisory
As sustainability issues are increasingly central to business, you need strategies and governance arrangements with solid legal foundations. As legal risks and regulatory demands grow, so do opportunities to lever solutions toward sustainability-driven transformation, through innovative deals and projects.
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A sophisticated, global, full-service team of experts to help you navigate sustainability goals and risks.

Legal issues in sustainability are developing at pace, raising simultaneously the demands of disclosure schemes, scrutiny on investment decisions, stakeholder activity, governance standards and corporate behaviour (both internally and across value chains). Litigation and regulatory risks continue to evolve and grow in severity. 

We are acutely aware of the challenges this dynamic presents to our clients in an increasingly complex geopolitical and economic environment. By drawing on our deep experience across practices and jurisdictions, we have adapted our long-established, market leading legal services into a strategic toolbox to support our clients. 

Our sustainability and environmental practice helps clients to both manage the risks of the most significant issues relevant to their businesses, and to navigate the opportunities of the transition. With dedicated specialists, and access to the firm’s broader full-service offering, we provide market-leading support across all key areas:

  • Governance advice to meet growing demands from investors on strategic transformation, broader risk management, board composition, shareholder activism and more
  • Policy and regulatory change monitoring, public affairs and advocacy, with counselling support to translate new obligations into your target setting, strategy and practical implementation and compliance programmes
  • Disclosure and reporting support, through our in-depth, live understanding of evolving requirements through work with dozens of the world’s largest organisations on TCFD, CSRD, ISSB, California climate disclosure rules and beyond
  • Supply chain risk management and resilience
  • Sustainability and environmental litigation defence and crisis response, alongside advising on approaches to managing liability, and minimising legal risk
  • Green collaboration and the development of arrangements to pursue sustainability goals in compliance with antitrust law
  • Sustainable finance arrangements, products and compliance, and supporting access to capital markets in connection with sustainability objectives
  • Transformational M&A aimed at sustainability goals, alongside the management of sustainability issues and EHS liabilities in mainstream M&A, from human rights and climate change to pollution, natural capital and governance
  • Development of transition projects, supporting decarbonisation and improved sustainability performance across the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors and beyond

Our sustainability practice is prolific, with active mandates advising a myriad of clients across the globe and experts spread across the EU, UK, US and Asia. Our team works together routinely, sharing best practice, insider knowledge and lessons learned as approaches to new sustainability frameworks and issues develop. With our global footprint, depth of regional expertise, public affairs capabilities and collaborative culture, we are uniquely positioned to meet your needs.

Related capabilities
Biodiversity and deforestation
Energy transition
Human rights and supply chain
People and social issues
Regulatory and public affairs
Sustainability and tax
Sustainable competition and collaboration
Sustainable finance and investment
Sustainability-related disputes and litigation
Sustainability-related governance
Sustainability regulatory developments
Sustainability reporting and disclosure
Sustainable transactions
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Disclosure and reporting

We are advising a vast array of corporates and financial institutions on disclosure obligations, across a range of sectors and with different sustainability footprints. In particular, we have been advising clients on the full spectrum of CSRD and the strategic direction that global reporting may take. This involves a broad range of support, including assessing applicability across corporate structures, working through the intricacies of topical standards and mapping data to disclosure requirements.

We support the management of risks relating to greenwashing and other misleading statements as well as the challenges posed by EU regulatory reforms and anti-ESG sidewinds.

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Contacts

Contacts

Meet the team
Düsseldorf
Juliane HilfPartner
London
Douglas BrydenPartner
London
Vanessa JakovichPartner
London
Simon DuncombePartner
London
Cat Greenwood-SmithPartner
San Francisco
Sam HoushowerCounsel
New York, Berlin
Marlen Vesper-GräskeCounsel
Meet the team
Awards & Recognition
JUVE 2025/26
5 stars, ESG Advisory
Chambers 2025
Band 1 Global ESG Crisis & Risk Management
Our thinking

Our thinking

View all blogs
Dec 19 2025
Austria’s New Electricity Act Unlocking flexibility: active customers, energy sharing and direct lines (3/3)
Austria’s energy landscape is on the verge of a significant transformation: On December 11, 2025, the Austrian Parliament passed the...
Dec 19 2025
The ‘E‘ of ESG: Environmental Omnibus published
On 10 December 2025, the Commission published its Environmental Omnibus, a comprehensive package designed to simplify certain...
Dec 19 2025
Austria’s New Electricity Act Unlocking flexibility: active customers, energy sharing and direct lines (3/3)
Austria’s energy landscape is on the verge of a significant transformation: On December 11, 2025, the Austrian Parliament passed the...
Dec 18 2025
Austria’s New Electricity Act Balancing risk and competition: key changes for suppliers and producers (2/3)
Austria’s energy landscape is on the verge of a significant transformation: On December 11, 2025, the Austrian Parliament passed the...
Dec 18 2025
The ‘E‘ of ESG: Postponement and simplification of the EU Deforestation Regulation
Introduction The European Parliament adopted a set of targeted amendments to simplify the EU Deforestation Regulation (the Regulation,...
Dec 12 2025
FCA consults on regulatory regime for ESG ratings providers
In late October, the UK Government published draft legislation to bring Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings providers into...
Dec 12 2025
Omnibus nears the terminus: Simplification of the EU sustainability framework
Introduction  The European Union’s co-legislators have adopted a set of simplification measures to the Taxonomy Regulation, the Corporate...
Dec 9 2025
SFDR Simplified - European Commission proposes a revised Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
On 20 November 2025, the European Commission unveiled its proposed revisions to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the...
Dec 1 2025
The ‘E‘ of ESG: Greenwashing under the spotlight – recent trends in the EU
Greenwashing is attracting growing scrutiny from courts and regulatory authorities in many jurisdictions, including the EU, UK, and US....
Dec 1 2025
The ‘E‘ of ESG: Greenwashing under the spotlight – recent trends in the UK
As set out in our EU greenwashing trends blog post, many jurisdictions are stepping up scrutiny of greenwashing. The UK is no exception:...
Dec 1 2025
The ‘E‘ of ESG: Greenwashing under the spotlight – recent trends in the US
Similar to the recent developments and intensifying regulatory approaches we outlined in our blog posts covering greenwashing trends in...
View all blogs
Related capabilities
Biodiversity and deforestationEnergy transitionHuman rights and supply chainPeople and social issuesRegulatory and public affairsSustainability and taxSustainability regulatory developmentsSustainability reporting and disclosureSustainability-related disputes and litigationSustainability-related governanceSustainable competition and collaborationSustainable finance and investmentSustainable transactions
Related capabilities
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