Life as an ESG lawyer: a law student’s guide

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This article has been produced in collaboration with Mayer Brown International LLP.

In this LCN Says, we speak to Tim Baines from Mayer Brown International LLP about life as a partner in the firm’s environmental team. Read on to find out how regulatory changes are impacting environmental strategies, Tim’s advice for aspiring environmental lawyers and lots more insights.

What’s the most interesting matter that you’ve worked on?

In recent years, I’ve really enjoyed advising international businesses on their broader sustainability compliance activities. This involves working across a broad range of jurisdictions, including Europe, North and South America and Asia. I’ve had the chance to work with colleagues from a number of different disciplines, including business and human rights, trade and compliance, and financial services.

How does working on UK-based matters differ from cross-jurisdictional work?

It really depends on the matter. Generally speaking, if it's a cross-jurisdictional matter, it's bigger in terms of the scope, remit and the number of people that you're working with. However, it's always interesting to learn about the law in different jurisdictions; and I enjoy working with new people at different law firms that I've not worked with before.

How do regulatory changes impact environmental strategies for businesses?

Regulatory changes have a constant impact on businesses. Environmental protection is an area that's in continuous flux. The scope of what constitutes ‘environmental compliance’ is continually expanding. At one time, ‘environmental law’ might’ve been confined to issues like contaminated land and waste. Now it’s a much broader area of law that extends into matters that involve mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence, for example. These issues are regularly evolving across different jurisdictions, and they impact what businesses can do and where.

What are some common challenges companies face when integrating environmental strategies?

For a large corporate working across many jurisdictions, internal coordination is one of the most challenging aspects of dealing with environmental regulation. Businesses must often work with a diverse range of teams, including the communication team, investor relations, the business and human rights team, a specific sustainability team, and sometimes also their accounting, corporate governance and tax teams. It’s important to ensure that everybody's on the same page. It can be a significant challenge for global organisations to ensure that the changes being effectively brought in across the organisation.

What role does commercial awareness play in advising clients on environmental matters?

Usually, you can’t make changes to the law, unless you're really involved in the early stages or the door is open for reform. Therefore, you need to find ways of acting within the law that allow businesses to achieve their commercial objectives at a minimum cost and with as little friction as possible in terms of their internal procedures. Helping clients achieve this can be incredibly rewarding.

What do you find most rewarding about your work in environmental law?

Environmental law is changing rapidly all the time. As is essential across all areas of law, you have to stay up to date with what’s happening in the sector – there are always new regulatory regimes, and the people/organisations you work with will always have new questions and concerns. This is where commercial awareness comes in. It can a challenge, but it's also what makes this area rewarding to work in. 

What role does corporate governance play in ensuring environmental compliance and accountability?

Businesses are massively concerned about reputational risk, as well as just complying with the strict letter of the law. It's a given that most of the clients that we work with want to comply with all law in all jurisdictions. However, there are broader questions when there are several potential courses of action. Businesses must consider how different choices interact with the policies and procedures they’ve put in place, and with the corporate values that they’ve published. In addition to formal corporate governance requirements, businesses must also ensure they're respecting the core values at the heart of their respective organisations. This is becoming increasingly more important given the heightened external scrutiny of corporate behaviours and will become even more crucial as businesses are required to publish more sustainability-related information.

Do you have any advice for aspiring environment lawyers? How can aspiring lawyers gain practical experience and what are the best ways to keep up with developments/trends in the field?

The environment encompasses a wide range of issues. As such, I think it's useful to focus on one or two key issues within this area that you’re interested specialising in. I’d suggest that aspiring environment lawyers read and write as much as you can about those areas; look for opportunities to get articles published or publish your own blogs; and look for other ways to delve into environmental law and get to grips with a more focused area. There’s always something new to discover and write about.

In terms of getting practical experience, it'll really depend on where you want to work and what sort of work you want to do. You may not want to be a solicitor; you may want to be a barrister.  You may want to in house, or to work for the government or in a regulatory agency. If you want to focus on what City law firms are doing in the environmental area then there's a variety of law firms that publish quite actively. I’d recommend keeping an eye on what they're blogging about and the key topics they're publishing client alerts around. You can also look at topics of interest on LinkedIn or in the press.

To find out more about life as a lawyer at Mayer Brown, check out this Meet the Lawyer to hear from associate Lola Adekoya. Plus, read this Meet the Recruiter for insights into what the firm values in candidates.