Climate change guidance issued to in-house lawyers by the Law Society
Published on 30th Jan 2024
Lawyers do not need to be ESG specialists but able to advise on when advice should be sought
The Law Society has published guidance on how to advise clients on mitigating the risk of greenwashing claims and how to advise on sound climate governance.
The guidance includes a list of climate-related issues to be covered in best practice advice, legal advice on greenwashing (listing relevant regulatory risks) and guidance on solicitors' conduct. In-house lawyers, in particular, are encouraged to raise their boards' awareness of the need to adopt sound management of climate-related risks, by a list of questions to be put to the board.
The key theme is that although lawyers do not need to be specialists on this topic, they are expected to be able to advise on when specialist advice should be sought. (Read our Insight for more on this.)
We published a case study last year comparing the environmental impact of conducting a typical international litigation case in person versus remotely. More details can be found here.
