Lawyers as enablers of the climate crisis
Holding law’s climate crisis enablers Responsible
by Monika Sobiecki and Mel Strickland
Lawyers form one of the central pillars of professional services – alongside public relations firms, financial institutions, insurance companies and indeed, academia – which sustain the continued existence of the fossil fuel industry. Behind every new coal mine, gas pipeline and oil well, sits a lawyer or law firm writing the contracts, advising on planning consents, or litigating in the fossil fuel industry’s interests.
Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA) published a report last year entitled The Carbon Circle: The UK Legal Industry’s Ties to Fossil Fuel Companies. LSCA’s research is based on analysis of the IJGlobal Project Finance and Infrastructure Transaction database, as set out in their methodology (pg 12). They found that in the context of transactional work (e.g. drafting contracts and arranging financing), from 2018 to 2022, 55 firms facilitated £1.48 trillion in fossil fuel projects, more than 2.5 times the amount these firms facilitated for the renewable energy industry (£546 billion).
In other words, whilst the world’s leading scientists were advising that any further expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure will take us beyond the ‘safe’ limits of 1.5˚C set by governments globally in the Paris Agreement, top UK law firms were (and still are) busy facilitating and profiting from the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure that will take us on a dangerous upward trajectory of increasing fossil fuel pollution.
Lawyers Are Responsible (LAR) is a group of lawyers – both solicitors and barristers – working to tackle the climate & ecological crises, principally by seeking to challenge the legal profession’s role in enabling the actions of the fossil fuel industry. LAR’s mission was widely publicised, in part through a short film projected onto the Royal Courts of Justice in March 2023. The launch was accompanied by a Declaration of Conscience, where as an act of civil disobedience over 180 lawyers globally pledged to withhold their services from (i) supporting new fossil fuel projects; and (ii) action against climate protesters exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest.
On Wednesday 13 November 2024, LAR in collaboration with Fossil Free London brought the reality of climate and ecological catastrophe closer to home for law firms A&O Shearman and Akin with a ‘climate crisis exhibition’. The action saw ‘exhibitors’ gather at the firms’ headquarters in Bishops Square to hold up large format photographs by acclaimed photographer Gideon Mendel. This series of photographs graphically illustrates the global impact of flooding. The flood victims stare at the camera from an environmental catastrophe that has devastated their lives.
In the case of A&O Shearman, LAR had been canvassing employees there for over a year. In 2023 LAR sent letters to their senior and managing partner regarding their responsibility to withhold legal services in relation to any new projects to extract fossil fuels, but the firm did not respond. Prior to its merger with Shearman & Sterling, Allen & Overy conducted £89 billion worth of transactional work between 2018 and 2022. A longstanding client of A&O Shearman is Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, which is currently significantly expanding oil and gas production.
US law firm Akin is well known for its work with the petrochemical industry, boasting on its website:
“For more than 75 years, Akin has empowered U.S. domestic and international oil & gas leaders to fuel the world…Akin is an elite global energy law firm with deep roots in the oil & gas industry. We are extremely well positioned to partner with our clients in creating value and sustainable business models in volatile markets and uncertain political climates.”
The firm also has a huge team of more than 75 lawyers specialising in political lobbying, including for the fossil fuel industry and its embedded role in the industry is indicated by its position as a member of the International Energy Trading Association (IETA). Global green coalition Kick Big Polluters Out identified the IETA as the biggest fossil fuel lobbyist at last year’s COP 28 in the UAE. The IETA brought 116 people including representatives from Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor. Akin also attended COP 28. Akin received $7.92m from fossil fuel lobbying for the period 2019-2023 according to LSCA’s Climate Scorecard 2024 report .
A&O Shearman and Akin were chosen as the location of the climate crisis exhibition due to their significant role as fossil fuel industry enablers. Both firms have been given the worst rating of ‘F’ in the Law Students for Climate Accountability 2024 scorecard.
LAR will continue to bring this message to the doorstep of major law firms like A&O Shearman and Akin for enabling climate and ecological breakdown. The essential first step in a shift away from a carbon economy is to stop any new fossil fuel projects that expand infrastructure, hence productive capacity, and start to reduce existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Yet these firms, by continuing to facilitate new fossil fuel projects, are accelerating us further along the path of climate collapse.
This must change.