With the heightening concern and importance of ESG, legal publications and awards providers are either introducing a new category or even a new publication for ESG. Here are some familiar names…
Chambers
Last year Chambers was the first to introduce an ESG ranking in its Crisis & Risk Management guide. There is only one category: ‘Global-wide ESG Risk’ and there are four bands for firms and nothing for individuals. The names of the guide and category are not the most inclusive and much of law firms’ ESG work may not fit into the category neatly. However, considering how much traction ESG has gained over the year, it is likely that Chambers will reshape its ESG section. Some possibilities include having an independent ESG guide, introducing new ESG categories and introducing lawyer rankings for the section. With Legal 500 and RSGI publishing their inaugural ESG rankings this year, it would be interesting to see how Chambers will distinguish its rankings from its competitors.
The next Chambers ESG ranking will be released on 28 June 2022. While the submission deadline has passed, given the publication is still young and flexible, you may contact the editor Simon.Christian@chambers.com for a conversation if you want to explore how to be included in the rankings.
Legal 500
Earlier this month, Legal 500 launched its inaugural Green Guide, with the EMEA region being the first to be featured, which makes perfect sense given most of the developed ESG frameworks originate in Europe and the concept is relatively developed there.
As suggested by its publication name, this guide focuses more on the ‘E’ of ESG and how law firms are assisting their clients with a green transition while walking the green walk internally. Unlike Chambers, there are no tiers, but law firms are placed in different colours — four firms are highlighted in green and the rest in grey. At first glance one would assume those in green on top of the page are ranked higher and the colour also seems to suggest they are greener, but with a closer look one can see they have a firm logo and profile attached to them, meaning they are placed higher (literally) probably because they have purchased a profile only.
The submission deadline for this guide was Q4 last year with no date published on its website. Law firms were approached and invited directly to make a submission. The US/Latin America submission was due on 11 February, and the UK/Asia Pacific submission will be due on 10 June 2022 if you would like to make a submission.
RSGI
In case the name doesn’t sound familiar to you, RSGI is the creator and researcher of the highly acclaimed Financial Times (FT) Innovative Lawyers Awards. The founder and executive director was a Chambers editor. With the success of its differentiating Innovative Lawyers, last week they published ‘Sustainable Lawyers’ — The Green Print Report Part 1, which put law firms into ‘levels’ with Level 5 being the highest.
The Green Print Report was researched within one month without law firms submissions. It is based on public information disclosed by law firms which includes their own ESG initiatives, commitment to Net Zero, pro bono work and whether they are a signatory of the EU Global Compact etc. It fills the gap of traditional directories who don’t currently recognise thought leadership and non-commercial work. Quite a smart product.
Apart from the report, the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards are still running, and is open to submissions for their Europe Awards NOW. The ESG-related categories are ‘Responsible business’ for law firms and ‘Sustainability and Responsible Business’ for in-house legal teams. The submission deadline is 11 May 2022 and submission guidelines can be viewed here.
Other ESG Recognition
Apart from the FT Awards with ESG categories, also open to nominations now are the Legal Business Awards, with one ESG category ‘ESG Programme of the Year’. The submission deadline is 18 March 2022!
Euromoney has started to introduce ESG categories in their legal and financial awards such as ‘ESG Deal of the Year’. The organisation also states that they recognise ESG effort for all entries.
Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters’s financial business) also introduced its sustainable finance league table rankings two years ago.
One can surely expect to see more ESG awards providers and categories, so if you are worried about not submitting enough to get your firm an ESG award/ranking, perhaps you’ll soon worry about having too many submissions to deal with. Free free to check out our previous article 5 Key Reasons Why You Should Be Selective About Awards and Rankings Submissions.
