Sustainable Finance

Our sustainable finance lawyers combine a deep understanding of the markets in which our clients operate with expertise in ESG risk factors to deliver a seamless and commercially pragmatic service.

Overview

Sustainable finance and ‘green finance’ captures the growing drive to facilitate sustainable economic growth by incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into investment decisions. Increasingly this is being driven through policy initiatives such as the UK’s Green Finance Strategy, with new law and regulation intended to eliminate green washing and accelerate a rapid transition to more sustainable economic activities.

At Burges Salmon, our sustainable finance lawyers work daily with clients that are involved with sustainable finance across a range of practice areas and client types. These include retail and private market funds, FCA-authorised investment managers, corporates, banks, pension schemes (both public and private sector), trustees, family offices, philanthropists, charities and high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Unlike most other practices, our expertise in financial regulation, corporate, banking and private wealth is supported by our market-leading environment and climate change practice and legal specialists in social and governance risks, allowing us to deliver a comprehensive and seamless service to our clients.

Areas of focus

Our sustainable finance lawyers specialise in the following:

Advising various fund managers on the launch of funds or products with an ESG or sustainability focus.
Advising corporate clients on the evolving national and global regulatory framework in relation to ESG matters as well as more generally on the ESG aspects of their M&A activity.
Advising pension scheme trustees on their Statement of Investment Principles (SIP).
Advising high-net-worth clients on sustainable investment and ESG risk management.
Providing bespoke training to a range of clients in relation to the UK’s sustainable finance and ESG regulatory regimes.
Advising clients on green and sustainability-linked loans and the incorporation of appropriate conditionality in debt documents.

Experience

Advising a UK wealth manager on the launch of its sustainable and responsible equity fund.

Advising fund managers on their ESG policies and communications.

Reviewing a local authority pension fund’s policies on investment and ESG and advising on a response to an international charity in the context of overseas investment.

Delivering a training session to members of local authority pension fund about the legal framework of ESG investment.

Providing a seminar on ESG factors involving the Pensions Regulator, the Investment Association and a Canadian pension regulator.

Keeping pension scheme trustees up to date on their ESG duties (including compliance issues and reporting).

Advising clients on green and sustainability-linked loans and the incorporation of appropriate conditionality in debt documents.

Advising Kinetic Capital on a £39m loan facility which will finance the development of student accommodation in Nottingham. The transaction is also the first in Kinetic’s environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) programme, through which the lender offers financial incentives for borrowers to deliver on pre-agreed ESG objectives with a focus on initiatives that support the mental health and wellbeing of students.

Working in partnership with the Scottish Financial Enterprise and delivering the first session of its climate and sustainability-themed COP26 series on 25 March 2021 focusing on ‘Achieving a Net Zero Economy’.

Advising a French fashion house on its ESG compliance including advising the Board on climate change risk reporting.

Advising a global fund on the impacts on its UK’s investments of climate change and carbon reporting.

Advising a private equity fund on ESG risks arising from the acquisition of a target operating in a sensitive market, including assisting the fund in understanding the rapidly evolving regulatory regime for the target’s business.

Advising an ultra-high net worth individual on the sale of their business and structuring the proceeds of sale into a range of sustainable investments.

Advising trustees on risk mitigation strategies in cases where they are asked to invest a high percentage, or the totality, of trust assets in ESG investments.

Meet the team