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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
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Sustainability-related disputes and litigation
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Sustainability regulatory developments
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Highlight experience
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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 2024/25
Band 1 ESG
Chambers 2025
Band 1 Global ESG Crisis & Risk Management
Our thinking

Our thinking

View all blogs
Aug 1 2025
The end of the road for a UK Green Taxonomy
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Jul 24 2025
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Overview and potential implications Introduction On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague delivered its...
Jul 7 2025
Financing resilience: blended capital for climate, nature and livelihoods
Can private capital fill the ‘climate finance gap’, the trillions of dollars shortfall between what is needed to mitigate and adapt to...
Jul 7 2025
A step closer to mandatory transition plans for UK-regulated financial institutions and FTSE 100 companies
On 25 June 2025, the UK government launched a consultation on mandatory disclosure of climate transition plans for UK-regulated financial...
Jul 2 2025
Market Trends in the Middle East and Northern Africa
  Hot topics Across the MENA region, long-term national development plans are reshaping the investment landscape and driving...
Jun 30 2025
CISAF: The EU’s ambitious State aid framework for competitive decarbonisation
To reach its ambitious 2050 climate neutrality goal, the European Union (EU) is determined to decarbonise its most greenhouse gas (GHG)...
Jun 26 2025
SEC Changes Course on Priorities, Unsurprisingly Continues Enforcing the FCPA, and Selects New Agency Leaders
Continuing its trend of reversing course from the last Administration, and with a nod to promoting innovation, the U.S. Securities and...
Jun 26 2025
Trends and Updates from the 2025 Proxy Season
The Freshfields’ team reviewed trends and developments for the 2025 proxy season, summarizing the key takeaways and guidance across the...
Jun 25 2025
UK progresses long-awaited updates to rules on sustainability reporting, assurance and climate transition plans
Following a long hiatus since the announcement at COP26 in Glasgow in late 2021, the UK has commenced formal processes toward the...
Jun 25 2025
CSRD and CSDDD at a Crossroads: The Council’s Push for Revisions
The Council of the European Union has reached a highly anticipated agreement on the content part of the sustainability-related Omnibus...
Jun 23 2025
UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy
Hot off the press The UK Government published its long awaited 10 year infrastructure plan last Thursday, 19 June.  Some of the headline...
Jun 19 2025
FRC launches new UK Stewardship Code 2026
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) describes the updates to the Code as “evolutionary and not revolutionary”. The focus is on a move...
Jun 11 2025
Inside Infrastructure: The latest from Germany
  As Germany’s new government settles into its role, the country’s energy and infrastructure sectors are undergoing transformative...
Jun 3 2025
More certainty for CCS value chain – European Commission will oblige oil and gas producers to develop storage sites
Based on the current trajectory, the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is likely to reach zero allowances for covered sectors around...
View all blogs
Related capabilities
Biodiversity and deforestationEnergy transitionHuman rights and supply chainPeople and social issuesSustainability and taxSustainability regulatory developmentsSustainability reporting and disclosureSustainability-related disputes and litigationSustainability-related governanceSustainable competition and collaborationSustainable finance and investmentSustainable transactions
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