Climate change: Law firms under scrutiny
UK law firms are still deeply entrenched in the fossil fuel industry, despite the growing climate crisis, a new report has warned.
It highlighted too the “significant credibility gap” for the many firms that have, at the same time, pledged support for sustainable initiatives.
Between 2021 and 2025, the combined value of all fossil fuel transactions that took place involving 20 UK law firms listed in the report was $706bn – and nearly 70% of this was attributable to the five ‘magic circle’ firms.
“This figure represents legal work on transactions related to oil and gas extraction, coal-fired power, LNG infrastructure, and related fossil fuel finance – providing a measure of the sector’s continued reliance on legal services from firms that have, in many cases, made public commitments to sustainability and responsible business practice.”
The figures come from Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA), a global student-led organisation that aims to make the legal sector accountable for its role in the climate crisis.
LSCA called on lawyers in the UK to reflect on the “a critical role” they play in the maintaining the fossil fuel industry through regulatory advice, litigation, transactions and lobbying.
Adam King, its research co-chair, said: “Reducing fossil fuel use is the only way to stay below 1.5°C [the climate goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels]. Yet Big Oil continues to expand its multi-trillion dollar business with law firms loyally by their side.
“The business case for clean energy has never been stronger, and the moral courage of major firms has never been so in question.”
For the last seven years, LSCA has produced a Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard [1], charting the environmental impact that the firms have made – good or bad – on people and the planet.
Using the Vault 100 – a list of the most prestigious law firms based on a survey of US associates – the scorecard rates the firms from A to F, with F the worst score.
The scorecard and accompanying analysis was created to help law students, young associates and clients choose which firms to join or hire.
Nina Pusic from LSCA said: “Law firms act as the invisible shield for the fossil fuel industry. As law students, we refuse to dedicate our careers to companies burning the planet. This scorecard gives us the transparency we need to make ethical choices about where we work.”
Globally, in the last five years the top 100 law firms helped close more than $2tn in fossil fuel deals.
“Right now, as evidenced in our scorecard, many of the most powerful law firms are locking us into greater and greater levels of climate destruction, aiding multinational companies such as Shell, BPP, Exxon and Chevron.
“Thanks in no small part to the work of these lawyers, 1,979 new large oil and gas fields and 364 new large coal mines have been approved since 2021 and will start operations by 2050.”
Five City giants – accounting for $539bn of transactions – were given an F rating in the latest scorecard: Linklaters, A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Norton Rose Fulbright and Hogan Lovells. (Only Freshfields’ US practice was ranked – as an F.)
BCLP was the highest-ranked UK firm, with a C rating.
The other magic circle firm, Slaughter and May, was not given a score because it is not in the Vault 100.
LSCA said: “These figures raise questions about the degree to which sustainability commitments are reflected in core business practice, particularly in the high-value transactional work that defines these firms’ commercial footprint.”
The authors of the data noted the gulf between the amount of fossil fuel transactions taking place involving UK firms and each firm’s published sustainability policies.
LSCA said all the magic circle firms have publicly declared their commitment to net zero and environmental, social and governance policies and plans, but the data raised serious questions about those commitments in practice.
Other UK firms named by LSCA included Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, DLA Piper, Ashurst, Watson Farley & Williams and Simmons & Simmons.
Commenting on the 20 UK firms, LSCA said: “Taken together, this group of firms illustrates that fossil fuel exposure is not confined to a small elite tier of the legal market, but is instead distributed across a spectrum of UK and internationally active practices.
“These figures make clear that the UK legal market, centered in London, plays a critical role in enabling fossil fuel finance.
“Although UK law firms have pledged support for sustainable initiatives, there remains a significant credibility gap between these commitments and the continued facilitation of fossil fuel activity that fuels further climate harm.”