A Changing Climate for In-House Lawyers? What Should They Really Say to Clients?
8 Pages Posted: 24 Aug 2022
Date Written: August 8, 2022
Abstract
This contribution considers how solicitors’ professional obligations are evolving as solicitors seek to reconcile the tensions between the public interest and their clients’ interests in the context of climate change. In the absence of an intervention by the regulator, professional bodies have now stepped in. The Law Society’s recent Resolution on Climate Change may yet have a profound impact on solicitors in private practice and in-house. Those working in-house have great opportunities to support the carbon transition, but also face greater potential professional peril if, for example, they fail to provide competent advice. Climate change creates opportunities and risks for many solicitors far beyond those who identify as environmental lawyers. But praise should be reserved for those who avoid greenwashing. Current professional rules which encourage lawyers to act as they please on any prospective work, no matter how harmful to the public interest, may merit re-examination.
Keywords: climate change law, public law, rule of law, legal professional ethics, legal profession
JEL Classification: K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation