The Role of Lawyers, Bar Associations, and Law Societies in Combatting Climate Change

Abstract

Lawyers and bar associations have a critical role to play in activating decarbonization and adaptation, and creating a more climate-conscious legal practice. The American Bar Association (ABA) has been working with the International Bar Association (IBA), the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), and the Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW) over the past two years to discuss the role of lawyers in combatting climate change and to share best practices. The authors of this article represented these organizations in this work. This work includes joint programming at the 27th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Climate Change Convention (COP 27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022, and at COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in December 2023. This article explains the need for climate-conscious law practice, and describes what bar associations and law societies are already doing and plan to do to foster more climate-conscious law practice.

Note: Published in Natural Resources & Environment Volume 38, Number 1, Summer 2023. © 2023 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Keywords: Bar association, American Bar Association, ABA, International Bar Association, Brazilian Bar Association, Law Society of England and Wales, law, lawyer,, attorney, climate change, net zero, U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, legal profession, sustainable development, sustainability

JEL Classification: K00, K19, K32, K49, Q28, Q38, Q48, Q01