Sustainability and ESG is not a specialism.
It’s a context.

Our vision

At DLA Piper, our vision is to make business better. 

There are lots of ways to do that, but in a world where temperature is increasing, extreme climate events are becoming more frequent, that raises significant challenges for our clients and for us as a business.

And that means that our response to those issues needs to correspond to our clients. 

That has meant that we have taken a long hard look at how we operate in our marketplace, and we’ve committed to reducing our carbon emissions to 1.5 degrees by 2030, and we’re working on a net zero plan with a target of 2050. 

And that is no different to what our clients are doing.

But it is an important differentiator in the legal market, where not all law firms are doing that. 

We are. We do it because we believe in it. 

Our sustainable future

Our goal is to help businesses, and the communities in which they operate, to transition and thrive in a more sustainable way. 

We do that in lots of ways. 

We do it in a client-facing way where we deploy specialised subject matter expertise in a whole range of key areas, from climate change and associated carbon reduction initiatives strategies through to supply chain and procurement reviews and associated issues that affect ultimately what ends up in the market, on supermarket shelves, or in front of consumers. 

But we also do that in a way that is authentic and credible because we, too, just like our clients, are businesses with a carbon footprint, with an impact on the environment and the community in which we operate. 

And so the starting point for us to walk the talk.

At the same time, we have a highly developed pro bono practice, one of the largest in the world. Every year, we do approximately 230,000 hours of pro bono work. That’s the equivalent of 150 full time lawyers working day in, day out, on a pro bono basis. 

And we’ve aligned the work that they do to the three pillars in ESG: Environment, Social and Governance. 

Our clients’ ESG journey

What we’re doing is bringing sustainability and ESG-led thinking to our existing practice areas and taking that to market in support of our clients’ needs through sectors. Because their needs vary on which industry they’re in and what the particular requirements are for them in that space.

So, if you’re a bank, your climate change issues are going to be very different compared to an airline or hotel or a retailer. 

There’s commonality between them, but also stark differences. 

And so the opportunity for you to join DLA Piper is to focus on your areas of interest and specialisation and to hone the advice you give through an ESG lens. 

And we have highly developed sectors that will provide you with learning, development and resources that are calibrated to the industry context in which we’re looking at these issues. 

ESG and your career

So don’t feel as though you need to become an ESG expert overnight. You don’t. You can’t. It’s a process. It’s a journey. 

That’s why you hear so much about transition. And the interesting thing here is our clients are on this journey at the same time as their advisors are.

And one of the characteristics of this space is you really get to partner with your clients, I think, in a way that is different to the traditional relationship of client and lawyer. 

And that requires you to bring not just subject matter expertise to the table, insights, experience, sector specialisation, so that what you’re talking about is relevant to the client in their space. It also requires you to think outside the box.

So, if you have a creative mindset and you think more than just about the answer to the questions being asked, but the assumptions behind it, then you can bring innovation into your thinking, then this is the firm for you.