Senior Advisor Audrey Rubin, former VP and Chief Operating Officer of the Law and Compliance Department of Aon Corp., is joined by Gregory Wilkinson, SVP and General Counsel of Electro Rent Corp., and Kim Metrick, VP of Employment Law, Legal Operations and Investigations of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., to explore how law departments can maximize their value to the company by focusing on environmental, social, and governance programs (ESG). With their experience as frontline legal executives, the participants offer insight and practical advice for participating in or leading the rapidly evolving ESG program and metrics changing the business landscape today.
Below are highlights from the webinar. To learn more, the video recording and podcast are available on this page.
The recent ESG Shareholder Engagement Report, published by Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine, shows 59% of corporate governance professionals agree their company’s board members have a high level of involvement in overseeing ESG and encouraging good corporate citizenship. The report also indicates US companies saw record numbers of environmental and social proposals from shareholders in 2021. These facts demonstrate that ESG is not only a hot topic right now, but it’s about to become even hotter.
Look Who is Currently Bearing Corporate Responsibility for ESG.
A recent survey conducted by BarkerGilmore indicates it is not a committee, the COO, or the CEO, but the General Counsel who assumes ultimate responsibility for the ESG program in most companies. GCs are likely to be perceived as natural leaders for these initiatives based on their experience serving as trusted advisors, managing governance issues, developing programs and policies in conjunction with the C-suite and the board, having a penchant for details, and being process-oriented.
BarkerGilmore ESG Corporate Survey
“This survey clearly documents the important role the General Counsel plays in the majority of companies surveyed.”
Audrey Rubin.
Consider Taking the Lead on the ESG Effort While Making it a Team Effort.
In the big picture, ESG needs to be a team effort to ensure appropriate metrics for each of the three components. ESG is not a proprietary initiative of the legal department, and GCs need to closely align with many departments and executives to be successful. For example, coordinating with HR, the COO, and the internal business partners responsible for the environmental side, will help the GC create a working partnership while maintaining a leadership role. Definitive metrics and the ability to improve on those metrics will ensure the credibility of the GC and the viability of the combined efforts of the ESG partners.
“For the team to figure out how to get there, the plan needs to flow from top to bottom. Start with the strategic goal and define the enabling objectives with specific actions for team members to take. The sooner the ESG plan is mapped around the metrics to track the implemented activities, the easier it will be for the team to coalesce and take the designated steps to realize significant results.”
Gregory Wilkinson.
Boost the Value of the Law Department.
Many GCs embrace the ESG initiative because it adds value to the services they already provide.
If a law department plans to move forward with an ESG program, starting with small steps is recommended. The GC begins by analyzing the company for “low-hanging fruit” to turn into immediate and recognizable successes quickly. Examples may include:
- Environmental Opportunities
- Encourage paper recycling
- Design a laptop policy to reduce energy consumption
- Print on both sides of a sheet of paper
- Eliminate expandable folders, using only the slimmer “interior” folders instead
- Social Opportunities
- Check supplier contracts to ensure they don’t participate in human trafficking
- Reach out to internal business partners with criteria for selecting vendors. These criteria can include vendors having an ESG program, an anti-slavery policy, or global child labor standards
- Governance Opportunities
- Outline specific steps to target and recruit diverse candidates thoughtfully
- Determine if all departments’ candidate pools have adequate diversity
Once executives and employees understand the benefits of the small steps and gradually become accustomed to new habits and approaches, they will naturally begin to acknowledge the GC as the program leader, bringing new respect and recognition to the law department.
“If you want to enhance the law department’s value by taking on the ESG effort, be proactive with your conversations. Approach ESG and social responsibility partners with the opportunity to create some synergies between the two functions. Try to be a good partner, understand what they are trying to accomplish from an ESG agenda perspective, and help them develop and advance goals that set them up for success.”
Kim Metrick.
Audrey Rubin and BarkerGilmore can help accelerate your initiatives or supplement your current strategic thinking. Please reach out if you or your organization may benefit from recruiting, leadership development and coaching, or legal and compliance department consulting services. Let BarkerGilmore help you build and optimize your legal and compliance departments.
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