The intersection of law and sustainability is no longer just a theoretical debate. It is an urgent, evolving reality. Legal professionals today face not only the traditional challenges of meeting increasing compliance demands but also the pressing need to address sustainability challenges that encompass human rights, environmental risks, and ethical business practices. 

For decades, lawyers have approached addressing legal issues through the lens of existing statutes, regulations, and fiduciary obligations. This conventional framework, however, often overlooks a growing and critical dimension: sustainable business practices. The universal adoption of sustainable frameworks (for example, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) combined with mounting legal disclosure requirements calls on lawyers to take a proactive role in understanding how to apply these principles when providing legal advice and apply them to their own legal companies. Those who fail to adapt risk being left behind in an era increasingly defined by accountability and transparency. 

The Challenge Facing the Legal Profession 

The legal profession today operates in a rapidly shifting landscape, shaped by global sustainability initiatives such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and climate-focused directives, such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Yet, the traditional training that most lawyers receive leaves them underprepared to address sustainability-related complexities. 

Some of the key hurdles legal professionals face include:

• Lack of training in identifying and advising on sustainable risks, human rights impacts, and understanding the role of disclosure in mitigating risk.
• Resistance to mindset shifts, where traditional legal counsel prioritises reducing risks instead of aligning legal advice with global best practices.
• Complex disclosure demands, such as mandatory human rights due diligence laws in the EU and beyond, which require comprehensive legal oversight of broader sustainability issues.
• Role ambiguity, with clients increasingly expecting lawyers to go beyond black-letter law and act as strategic advisors on sustainability initiatives.

These challenges, while daunting, are also an opportunity for the legal profession to redefine its role in advancing sustainable progress. 

This presentation will explore these issues in more detail, providing examples on how the legal profession should evolve. It will cover issues, such as understanding sustainability in the context of the legal profession, navigating mandatory disclosure requirements and considerations for law firms and lawyers to expand their practice areas to meet the requirements of the sustainability agenda. 

•   https://www.ardeainternational.com/resources/publications/modern-slavery-and-transparency-in-supply-chains-the-role-of-business/
• IBA guidance note on business and human rights – downloaded here: https://www.ibanet.org/document?id=English-Updated-IBA-Guidance-Note-on-Business-and-Human-Rights-role-of-lawyers-apr-23
• UN Guiding principles on business and human rights : https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf