Hi, I’m Joely and I’m studying Law, with study in Continental Europe.
I’m a Sustainability Champion for the Law School. In this role I want to try and integrate sustainability into the curriculum and encourage as many students as possible to consider climate-conscious careers.
From intense rainstorms, severe droughts, and tropical cyclones to extreme heat waves, rising sea levels and biodiversity loss, the impacts of climate change are felt, mainly by the global South, on an almost daily basis.
What can lawyers do about it?
So how can aspiring lawyers help to combat the climate crisis?
1. Choose law firms carefully
As all law students who are currently searching for jobs in the legal field know, thorough research is necessary to secure a job. However, this research should also consider whether the firm is the right fit for you and the planet.
There are many resources to assist with this, such as ‘Law Students for Climate Accountability ’, an organisation ranking UK and US firms according to how much fossil fuel work they engage in, and the Legal Sustainability Alliance, assisting law firms to act on the climate crisis.
It’s important to be critical about claims made by corporate firms regarding their environmental sustainability.
Many progressive firms have well-developed ESG reporting, however, simultaneously engage in harmful fossil fuel transactions.
For example, Linklaters produce annual sustainability reports detailing their social impact and carbon reduction targets, however, from 2019 to 2023 they made over 143 billion USD in fossil fuel transactions. Implementing ESG strategies does not mitigate the damaging fossil fuel work many corporate firms engage in.
Aspiring lawyers must choose the right firm for them, based on their research. If combatting the climate crisis is important to you, and you want it to form a key part of your career, you may want to consider firms focusing on climate injustice such as ClientEarth and LeighDay.
2. Organisational change
Once you have chosen the right firm for you, the next step is to create organisational change. Debra Meyerson first created the idea of ‘tempered radicals’ in 2001, suggesting small changes over long periods of time can have a big impact. These changes could be introducing sustainability champions, and/or creating policies requiring firms to consider online rather than in-person meetings where possible.
The success of the tempered radical’s approach results from its ripple effect. Although implementing changes starts on a small-scale, as you and hopefully other tempered radicals progress through your career the impact you have increases. For this approach to be successful, tempered radicals must be patient as organisational change is slow, as well as successful in their role in order to achieve legitimacy in the workplace and resilient, as you are likely to face pushback and/or apathy.
3. Network with like-minded professionals
Finally, networks are important for providing support in your career. Within the sustainability and climate field, networks can help with some of the problems of pushback and apathy detailed above and provide inspiration for creating change.
One great example of building networks to support a climate conscious career is the organisation ‘Lawyers are Responsible’, a group of UK-based lawyers who have signed a declaration stating that they will not take action against peaceful climate protestors or represent new fossil fuel projects. Joining networks can be an impactful way to implement sustainability in your career.
Sustainability and the climate is fast becoming a priority for both employees and employers, therefore, I hope this blog has given some useful organisations and tips for prospective lawyers to help implement sustainability in their careers.
For more guidance, come and talk to the Careers Service on Live Chat or visit us on campus at 5 Tyndall Avenue for a face-to-face meeting.