Timothy Wilkins, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. 

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is creating a new role to address global clients' growing concerns about environmental issues and social responsibility.

New York-based partner Timothy Wilkins will serve as the U.K.-based firm's first global partner for client sustainability and will lead a team of lawyers across practice groups and spanning the firms' offices around the world.

"Both in the boardroom and the general counsel's office, there is a lot more focus on sustainability issues," Wilkins said.

This impulse is in part driven from the outside, as investors and shareholders as well as communities are putting pressure on businesses to pay increased attention to environmental, social and governance issues. But Wilkins believes that clients are themselves realising the need to participate in the broader sustainability agenda.

"They recognise that governments and the non-profit sector are not going to be able to marshal the full suite of resources necessary to handle ESG issues on their own," he said.

As an example, he noted that $90 trillion will be needed in infrastructure investment worldwide by 2030, and to ensure that that those investments meet sustainable development goals, 80% will have to come from the private sector.

"Clients are asking: 'What will qualify?" Wilkins said.

The cross-border M&A lawyer joined Freshfields in 1999 and became a partner in 2002. He spent his first seven years with the firm in its Tokyo office, before moving to New York. Sustainability questions have always been an area of interest, he said.

A member of the board of directors of the New York City Economic Development Corporation since 2015, Wilkins and the firm are already looking at the city's sustainability challenges on the  Circular New York City Initiative. Representatives from the mayor's office, the economic development corporation, firm clients and thinktanks are devising plans for creating a circular economy that makes better use of the city's scarce resources while minimising waste.

In addition to guiding clients on investments in environmental sustainability, Freshfields also aims to work with them on issues like human rights considerations throughout their supply chains.

Not only do clients receive guidance on regulations in emerging economies that they need to be aware of from a risk mitigation perspective, it also allows them to get out on the forefront and demonstrate that they are succeeding in providing a sustainable business from a human rights point of view.

"I really think our clients have said they want to be on the right side of history here and are quite proactively working with us to come up with new products and new proposals to address these issues," Wilkins said.

Wilkins is also optimistic that the firm's focus on sustainability will provide a boon to recruiting new lawyers.

"Talent is so sophisticated now in terms of making their choices, in terms of which law firms to work at and looking at the type of work they do," he said. "The excitement of working with clients in terms of making a positive social impact really makes a lot of impact."

Some of the firms summer associates are already involved, he added, explaining that it's some of the most challenging work a young lawyer will encounter.

"The skills they need to bring to bear really need to go across practice groups," he said. "They're thinking like a litigator but acting on transactions like a corporate lawyer. So they're quite excited about that."

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