ESG: how can in-house lawyers guide their business to the starting line?

Author Sarah Ingwersen
March 12, 2021

On the 4th March 2021, Sarah Ingwersen and Eva Bishop facilitated the latest in our Taylor Root ESG webinar series titled ESG: How can General Counsels and in-house lawyers guide their business to the starting line? 

There is so much information in the public domain about ESG and the importance of measuring impact for an organisation. But what role do General Counsels and in-house lawyers have to play in guiding their organisations to establishing an ESG proposition?

We wanted to explore the functionality of ESG within a business, how to make it measurable, meaningful and sustainable. More specifically, we examined the role in-house lawyers (at all levels) can play in shaping and developing an ESG proposition, without it feeling like a box-ticking exercise.

Facilitated by:

Topics discussed by our panellists included;

ESG Overview

  • What is ESG and how can it drive your business forward?
  • Can an ESG proposition have universal appeal across all sectors or is it only relevant for those with a tangible product or output?
  • What is a direct advantage of ESG in terms of retention / attraction of talent?
  • Why is ESG important from a CEO’s perspective?

The Impact of ESG in the current climate

  • Has the ESG agenda accelerated or taken a back seat as a result of Covid-19?
  • How do we avoid ESG greenwashing?
  • How do you meaningfully measure ESG impact (both internally and externally)?

ESG relevance to in-house lawyers

  • What should General Counsels / in-house lawyer know about ESG?
  • How easy is it for in-house lawyers to influence ESG change?
  • What role should the General Counsel play in educating the Board on ESG?
  • What questions should General Counsels ask their Board in relation to establishing an ESG proposition?

Panellists on the day were;

Author

Sarah.Ingwersen head shot

Sarah Ingwersen

Managing Director | Global Head of In-house Legal

China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, UAE, UK, US
+44 20 7332 2137
Connect

Featured Content

See all news
Close up of a woman at work, green shirt, making hand gestures

How data protection leaders can hold the C-suite’s attention

  • Posted September 4, 2026
Contents Share Key insights Executive attention is the scarcest resource a data protection function competes for. Winning the C-suite’s attention is often the easy part: a regulatory deadline or a data breach naturally puts privacy on the board agenda without any effort from the Data Protection Officer (DPO).   Keeping that attention is what allows privacy programmes to grow beyond a team of one.  Across data protection recruitment, the […]

How tech and life sciences companies should hire legal leaders for growth

  • Posted September 4, 2026
Contents Share Key insights High-growth companies rarely need the same legal function for long.  A technology startup may initially need support with intellectual property and commercial contracts before enterprise growth, AI adoption or international expansion changes the legal brief. A life sciences company may move from fundraising and IP protection into clinical development, licensing and commercialization.  The challenge is recognising when […]
Shot of a group of businesspeople having a meeting in an office

What does a data centre lawyer do? Understanding one of the legal market’s most elusive skill sets

  • Posted September 3, 2026
Contents Share Key insights What is the remit of a data centre lawyer? It is a question we are being asked with increasing frequency by C-suite leaders preparing to make their first General Counsel hire, by existing in-house legal teams assessing where their capability gaps lie, and by lawyers themselves trying to understand how to […]