Risk and Governance

As the focus from investors, stakeholders and the wider public on ESG issues increases, the role of ESG data, analytics and ratings will become ever more important. Ratings, and the data that businesses make available in the public domain, could have both positive and negative financial and reputational impacts. A negative ESG rating could hinder access to finance or lead to public criticism, for example, and organisations will be keen to understand what they can do to improve the perception of their ESG performance.

Our team can help critically analyse ESG ratings to help businesses better understand how they might improve their scores. Our team can also advise on strategic approaches to transparency and the content of specific disclosures as well as on building a credible ESG narrative to support access to finance, stakeholder engagement and investor relations.

As investors, shareholders and other stakeholders take an increasingly active role in influencing ESG strategy and ESG-related transparency, the way in which our clients engage is rapidly evolving.

Our multi-disciplinary team is experienced in assisting clients in managing interactions with a range of different stakeholders. We have advised on general engagement strategies, on shareholder resolutions and AGMs, responses to NGO campaigns and criticism, and on managing legal claims and crisis situations.

The rise of ESG is having an unprecedented impact on the financial landscape, giving rise to new challenges in accessing finance as well as new opportunities for those developing green or sustainable projects. New regulation will only increase the focus on this area.

Our integrated team is here to help on all aspects of sustainable finance and is adept at navigating the hard and soft law requirements relevant to this area as well as wider strategic considerations relevant to seeking or making investment.

For more information, visit our Sustainable Finance page.

Until recently, ESG and “competition law” weren’t often used in the same sentence. But this is changing rapidly. From a desire to co-operate to achieve green objectives, to environmental factors that are driving a deal and sustainability commitments becoming part of a State aid package, an understanding of how competition rules can impact a company’s ESG agenda is crucial. To understand more about the competition law issues, take a look at our Competition and Sustainability Blog Series.

Our Competition/Antitrust team advises on the interplay between ESG factors and competition rules in all areas including co-operation between competitors, merger control issues and State aid. Our team delivers clear, commercial advice allowing you to pursue your ESG goals with a clear understanding of the level of competition risk on a global basis. We offer innovative solutions to achieve your aim drawing upon our deep strategic and agency insights.

Our experienced team can help you navigate through the ever-increasing regulatory requirements and investor expectations to incorporate ESG considerations into reward design and disclosure. The team takes a holistic approach, analysing how these considerations interact with current remuneration rules and internal practices to ensure a seamless offering.

Learn more about our Employment & Incentives practice.

The challenges organisations face today are clear: geopolitical uncertainty, myriad ESG-related rules and regulations, heightened scrutiny by investors, consumers and other stakeholders and technological disruption, to name a few. Against this backdrop, taking a more structured and robust approach to risk management has become increasingly important and is now firmly on board agendas.

For some, risk has become shorthand for compliance. Our multi-disciplinary team delivers a more holistic approach, helping clients identify, manage and mitigate strategic risks, and design and implement compliance frameworks that will drive behavioural and cultural change within organisations.

Good governance is critical to ensuring a strategic approach to ESG, developing sustainable corporate strategies, making robust decisions and setting the right tone from the top. Increasingly businesses are looking at their governing bodies and reviewing their composition and decision-making processes to ensure they keep pace with the changing world around them.

Our multi-disciplinary team draws upon the strength and breadth of their market expertise to support organisations review and update their governance processes, and design governance frameworks to keep apace of emerging ESG trends.

If things do go wrong, we understand the need to move swiftly and comprehensively. Our multidisciplinary crisis response team can mobilise quickly to help you respond to the issues you are facing, offering you the support you need, wherever you need it, fitting into your own crisis management team and collaborating with your other advisers.

We are experienced in navigating the crucial first 72 hours of any crisis, and then working with clients to build a cohesive crisis response framework, undertake investigations and advise on engagement with regulators, investors and other stakeholders.

As part of our 360-degree offering, we can also help with lessons-learned and root cause reviews to help design and implement appropriate preventative measures to reduce the risk of recurrence shore up operational resilience.

For more information, visit our Crisis Management page.

Environment and health and safety matters are highly regulated in many countries. Regulators, individuals and special interest groups are increasingly willing to pursue organisations (and in some cases multinational parent companies) for environmental or social wrongs.

Our lawyers advise on the full range of environment, health and safety and social issues, including environmental permitting, contaminated land, environmental damage, waste management, water, emissions, chemicals regulation, industrial disease, health and safety, social and human rights issues. We also advise on emerging regulation and enforcement trends, to help you anticipate issues and position yourself for incoming requirements.

The team provides real-time and practical solutions to optimise outcomes and mitigate disruption to business or to any contemplated transactions.