Linklaters has secured a high-profile pro-bono mandate to help the United Nations (UN) produce a corporate sustainability guide for general counsel.

The firm is working with the UN and a group of general counsel on the United Nations' Global Compact (UNGC), to raise the profile of corporate counsel as a linchpin of sustainable business practices.

UNGC was set up in 2000 to encourage businesses to adopt socially responsible and sustainable policies.

The guide, aimed at GCs, corporate management teams and private practice lawyers, is due to be launched in the next few weeks.

As part of Linklaters' research for the project, the firm has interviewed a large number of senior counsel at UNGC participant companies, as well as the companies of the members of the UNGC board, chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

An advisory group of companies – understood to include Rio Tinto, Novartis, and the International Financial Corporation – is also contributing to the guide.

Linklaters is already actively seeking to advise general counsel on the broader regulatory and sustainability issues they face.

Last week, the firm launched its Operational Intelligence Group (OIG), a cross-practice legal team set up to assist general counsel with risk, regulatory and governance challenges.

London-based US corporate partner Tom Shropshire – one of the co-founders of the OIG and leading on the UN mandate – said the number of issues facing GCs "had increased dramatically" in recent years.

"Their role has grown in helping a company achieve its business objectives, and address stakeholder issues, which boards commonly see as being within the ambit of the executive management team and increasingly the GC," he said.