Alumni from three different eras examined ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues of corporate law recently at the Law’80 Careers in Business Panel. Introduced by Professor Mohamed Khimji, Queen’s Business Law Program Director, the event was moderated by Corporate Law Club co-presidents Emily Dolan and Wamika Razdan, both Law’24.

The panelists – spanning 35 years of corporate governance experience – were Kelley McKinnon, Law’88, Harvard Senior Fellow, Advanced leadership Initiative 2021; Brad Allgood, Law’10, Sun Life Assistant VP and Managing Counsel, Investment Solutions; and Heather Bonnell, Law’20, Associate Lawyer working in the Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies group at Dentons. 

All three panelists agreed that the recent explosion of interest in ESG can be tied to a new corporate awareness that consumers and their stakeholders want to see change in these areas. “It’s a tremendously eye-opening, significant shift that I see continuing to be driven both from the top down and the bottom up,” said McKinnon, who noted that, when she started practicing as a litigation lawyer in 1990, the expression “corporate social responsibility” was largely focused on how companies could stay out of trouble.

Citing the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, as well as increasing acceptance of scientific evidence for human-caused climate change, Allgood noted: “Governments are falling farther and farther behind, and corporations are driving this now. They’re seeing how they can have an environmental and social impact while still remaining profitable.”

“I think there’s a convergence now between the people who want to make money and those who want to see corporations acting more responsibly,” said Bonnell. “It’s a shift that’s really broad and complex, but also very interesting.”

The sheer breadth of issues around ESG – and the fact that it isn’t clearly defined – has made regulation a problem, the panel noted. “We’re still at the beginning of defining, clarifying, and putting some guardrails around what ESG means,” said McKinnon, adding: “The bigger conversation is going to shift to the broader concept of sustainability: how to run corporations and governments in a way that has positive social value.”

Whether the current focus on corporate ESG issues stems from “intrinsically good” motives, or a desire to improve financial performance was deemed a moot point by the panelists, who agreed the two options weren’t mutually exclusive. They also agreed that so-called “greenwashing” (conveying misleading information about environmental business practices) can harm the ESG movement by reducing trust in companies or investment funds. “We need to decide how we define sustainability, how we measure it, and how we’re reporting it,” stated Allgood. 

“ESG regulations will become just like any other requirements that companies must fulfill,” Bonnell predicted. “For a young lawyer today, there is an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution because this area of law is still unfolding.”

In the annual Law'80 Careers in Business Law series, notable legal practitioners expose students to various corporate law topics and career opportunities.

By Nancy Dorrance