Earth Day: The Case For Greening Your Legal Supply Chain

The sustainability of business supply chains matters.  It always has.  For many years, outside of the most egregious labor or environmental conditions, businesses largely could ignore everything but the bottom line in their supply chains.  But things have changed and will continue to change rapidly going forward.

Increasing Trend of Environmental Accountability

In the face of climate, biodiversity, and other environmental crises, consumers expect increasing environmental accountability from businesses.  Modern consumers pay attention to the companies they do business with, have the conviction to abandon irresponsible companies, and generally are willing to pay extra to align their consumption with their values.  Companies that have not recognized and responded to this reality have lost ground to their competitors that have.

Tracking these consumer expectations, the Biden administration has been emphasizing the “Environmental” component of ESG.  Internally, the Council on Environmental Quality recently released final regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act that restore requirements for federal agencies to consider the direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts of proposed actions before permitting those actions.  Externally, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has a proposed rule that would require publicly traded companies to disclose certain climate-related information, including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and value chains.

The most forward-looking and responsible businesses not only have long been aware of the increasing trend of environmental accountability but also have made significant business decisions based on that awareness.  These businesses now have another opportunity to get ahead of the curve and more fully green their operations. 

Greening Your Business’s Legal Supply Chain

When it comes to environmental impacts, businesses often overlook the sustainability of their legal supply chains.  They may do so for many reasons.  For example, businesses may not perceive legal services as being part of their supply chain because those services physically occur outside of the production process and are ancillary to it.  Businesses also may focus only on the direct environmental impacts of the law firms serving them (e.g., the carbon footprint of physical offices and business travel), which generally would be minimal compared to businesses in other industries.  Finally, businesses may not be concerned with this issue because the public has not yet intensely focused its attention there. 

Whatever the reason, overlooking or ignoring the sustainability of your business’s legal supply chain is a mistake.  Law firms, like other parts of a business’s supply chain, respond to pressure from valued clients.  Client pressure has, for instance, caused law firms around the country to reevaluate their recruiting, hiring, staffing, and compensation practices related to diverse attorneys.  Efforts and successes in this area have varied by firm, but nobody can deny that client expectations in this area have driven some meaningful, albeit still inadequate, changes.

When it comes to the environment, the nation’s biggest law firms cause an enormous amount of harm through their representation of big polluters.  These firms, chasing the small handful of businesses who can pay their exorbitant hourly rates, impose virtually no value checks on the work they do.  This leads these firms to, for example, represent companies in efforts to drill for and sell more oil and gas, shield those companies from accountability for natural resources damages, and engage in related legislative and regulatory advocacy.    

Big law, in particular, has played a uniquely damaging role when it comes to climate change.  As shown in the most recent law firm climate report card produced by Law Students for Climate Accountability, the vast majority of Vault 100 law firms are engaging in legal representation that is seriously exacerbating climate change. 

Despite the significant role big law firms play in exacerbating climate change, major clients generally have not taken action to hold these firms accountable.  Instead, clients have either not considered the issue or looked the other way, with each situation leading to the enrichment of professionals who—regardless of their personal views or preferences—are helping their clients damage our planet for generations to come.

General Counsel and Other C-Suite Leadership

General counsel and other c-suite leadership are in a unique position to help hold big law firms accountable by hiring from the vast pool of other talented lawyers not involved in environmentally destructive representation.  Earth Day is the perfect time for these leaders to reevaluate their outside counsel hiring practices and take action to green their legal supply chain.

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Good Steward Legal is a principles-driven business law office dedicated to protecting and advancing its clients’ interests by providing them with cost-effective, high-quality legal service. Good Steward Legal is proud to be a 1% for the Planet member and signatory of the Law Firm Climate Pledge.