There must be an intrinsic motivation to demonstrate how the legal function contributes on the ESG journey above and beyond just providing advice.

In light of the big and important social issues of our day, law firms need to - and are expected to - take a position. As every organisations has experienced, that position won't satisfy everyone, but not to take a position is not acceptable anymore.

In the first blog of our series, we introduced Yannick and Adrian from impactvise and learned more about why legal professionals are key players as companies, small to large, embark on their sustainability journeys.

mpactvise AG, the data analytics platform providing legal-sector-specific environmental, social, and environmental (“ESG”) data, sustainability training, and strategic advisory services to law firms and in-house legal departments, today announced the appointment of Joerg Ruetschi to its Strategic Advisory Board. Mr. Ruetschi, who served as Member of the Board since impactvise’s launch, will be transitioning from his role as Lead Incubator to join PwC veteran and founding Strategic Advisory Board member Stephen O’Hearn to build out a team that represents decades of experience in digital transformation, data analytics, and operational excellence.

Service providers, including law firms, must now demonstrate to clients how their ESG value align. In other words, they need to start walking the talk. This is a recent evolution for legal service proviers, presenting a unique opportunity for them to start driving impact across the value chain - moving beyond just providing advice on compliance.

Our findings from our Mid-Year 2022 Performance Review indicate that even amongst the strongest actors in the legal sector with respect to sustainability (the "Lucky Number 7" of Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Linklaters, Baker McKenzie, DWF, Burges Salmon and Freshfields, at time of writing), there remains significant room for growth, improvement, and change across the E(nvironmental), the S(ocial) and the G(overnance)-related aspects among global law firms.

To follow-up on last week's post naming the 'Lucky Number 7' of top law firms leading the pack on ESG and sustainability performance in the legal space (Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Linklaters, Baker McKenzie, DWF, Burges Salmon and Freshfields), this post outlines impactvise's high level Mid-2022 Performance Review, or the areas where these firms are either exceeding or meeting expectations, and where there is room for improvement.

Using a proprietary methodology featuring criteria tailored specifically to the legal sector, impactvise has assessed almost 1000 law firms, big and small, across 6 continents (no lawyers in Antartica… yet) to find the world’s top legal service providers with respect to their firm’s sustainability and ESG maturity.