As ESG Demand Soars, Covington Hires Former EPA Boss

As ESG Demand Soars, Covington Hires Former EPA Boss

September 20, 2021, The National Law Journal

The American Lawyer covered Carol Browner’s Covington arrival. Carol said part of what attracted her to Covington was the firm’s ability to attract high-caliber government talent; the firm is home to over 100 former high-ranking government officials, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, and Gary Guzy, a former White House general counsel who worked with Browner at the EPA.

Carol also saw Covington as the place she could focus her sustainability and ESG practice to “maximum effect.” When she first started working with the private sector, she said ESG and sustainability were perceived as “nice to haves.” Yet now, as regulators increase their focus on ESG and governments increasingly enact more stringent climate change policies, sustainability has become “table stakes” for clients.

“ESG has become a core part of business. Companies are being called on to prevent harm and provide solutions in the face of impending climate change,” Carol said.

While her practice has always been on the policy side, “having the legal apparatus that Covington has is critical for clients,” she said.

Gary Guzy said along with traditional regulatory and compliance services, clients are looking to their lawyers for guidance on how to develop sustainable policies and business strategies that mitigate risk. “ESG and sustainability are now the core aspects of what defines risk and reward for companies,” he said. “These are critical issues, and our platform aims to help companies find solutions in those areas and understand that set of impacts.”

In addition, Gary said a cross-practice approach is required to help clients navigate ESG and sustainability in the current economic and political environment. “Covington recognizes the challenges ESG, climate risk, and sustainability issues present to our clients,” Gary said, adding that Covington has been “increasingly honing [its] offerings, and engaging with clients” to help them understand climate change is “a key risk area for companies.”

Adding Browner to the bench “builds on Covington’s tradition of bringing in practitioners who have tremendous real-world and governmental experience” and “bringing to bear the best thinking, on behalf of our client,” Gary added.

Gary said an increasingly wider range of Covington clients are coming to the firm for advice on climate-related issues. They include renewable energy generation and clean technology, corporate climate risk, disclosures and ESG-related due diligence for transactions.