Go Fisch!: A Celebration of Jill Fisch's ESG Scholarship

Abstract

While many scholars have written about ESG, few have done so with as much care, incisiveness, and fresh insight as Jill Fisch. This Article, a contribution to the Institute of Law and Economic Policy (ILEP)/University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Journal of Business Law Symposium celebrating Fisch’s scholarship and influence, builds on her pathbreaking ESG work.

Fisch often explores the many players that contribute to a company's ESG statements, goals, and actions: regulators, mutual funds, intermediaries, shareholders, and stakeholders. She considers whether these players actually make a difference, and how their actions could push the ESG needle one way or another. This article considers one additional player and their potential role in the ESG conversation: the transactional lawyer. Building on literature on transactional lawyering, it argues that, in the process of advising transactional clients on deals and corporate governance, transactional lawyers can also share information about market norms relating to ESG. This may in turn help solve some of the issues that Fisch has identified in the ESG space—in particular, lack of transparency and uniform disclosure about ESG-related topics.