{"id":2270,"date":"2022-07-07T15:37:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T13:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/nachhaltigkeit-esg-als-treiber-fuer-neue-oekosysteme-im-rechtsmarkt"},"modified":"2022-07-12T15:47:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T13:47:33","slug":"sustainability-esg-as-a-driver-for-new-ecosystems-in-the-legal-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/sustainability-esg-as-a-driver-for-new-ecosystems-in-the-legal-market","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability (ESG) as a driver for new ecosystems in the legal market?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actually, sustainability \u2013 and as a result ESG (environment, social, governance) \u2013 is nothing new. The only surprise is the speed and vehemence with which the issue has taken root in the economy thanks to the \u201cFriday for Future\u201d movement, the corona pandemic and the climate debate. How are legal service providers dealing with this?<\/p>\n

For law firms and legal departments, these developments are first resulting in an increased demand for legal advice. But which of them will want to serve their customers with more than \u201cmere\u201d legal advice and be able to position themselves successfully among competitors in the long term? One thing seems clear: it will not be sufficient to simply add the ESG tag to one\u2019s legal specialisation (for instance, competition law and ESG). Nor will it be sufficient to reduce one\u2019s CO2<\/sub> emissions. This is hardly likely to go through as Green Legal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In order to ensure that their legal services have more than a merely legal benefit for their customers, it will not be enough for legal service providers to understand the difference between a sustainability strategy and a sustainable business strategy. In particular, they should know their customers better, and thus also be more familiar with their products, framework conditions, value creation chains, customers and suppliers. Today, this will become even more important since ESG has to be understood as a cross-sectional issue which cannot simply be confined to a single department. Without the corresponding sensitization of lawyers to this issue, their legal advice will continue to be correct but \u2013 from a customer\u2019s point of view \u2013 not always also have a beneficial and useful effect. Thus the question arises: how do you as a lawyer become a good, legally trained sparring partner?<\/p>\n

Finally, it must be added that a single legal department or law firm is unlikely to be able to cover the issue of sustainability comprehensively on its own. It is imperative that further experts will have to be integrated. But who is to offer the whole package to customers? Here, a look at the concept of ecosystems might prove useful.<\/p>\n

Ecosystems improve results<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of corporate ecosystems consists in various companies working together in order to jointly provide a product, a service or a whole package of products and\/or services, to improve the overall outcome. A single company would be unable to do this or do it with the same quality. Sabine Keller-Busse, President of UBS Switzerland, said about this recently that her bank does not think that it could do everything best on its own and that it works with partners where it spots a higher degree of competence elsewhere. She added that increased cooperation within the framework of innovative ecosystems enables them to create economies of scale and network effects which ultimately also result in added value for its customers \u2013 this is what matters, regardless of the industry (cf. NZZ<\/em> of 28 May 2022, p. 17 of the supplement). And when it comes to the provision of in-house services and procurement, why not transpose these reflections to the legal industry?<\/p>\n

If we look at the legal market in starkly simplified terms, we can discern three groups<\/strong> of legal service providers: (1) legal departments<\/strong>, which should know the company and the industry and thus their customers best, (2) law firms<\/strong>, which are primarily distinguished by their specialised legal expertise, and \u2013 in comparison with the two before-mentioned traditional service providers \u2013 (3) \u201calternative\u201d legal service providers<\/strong>, which, in particular, are characterised by pronounced process orientation and better digitalisation competencies (cf. Bruno Mascello, \u201cWie Kanzleien und Rechtsabteilungen die n\u00e4chste Welle \u00fcberleben k\u00f6nnten\u201d, 6 March 2018<\/a>, with reference to Bruno Mascello, \u201cStrategische Positionierung der Kanzlei in Zeiten von Legaltech und Digitalisierung\u201d, in: Anwaltsrevue<\/em>, 1\/2018, p. 18-24). Each of these three providers has its very own strong points, but if they pooled resources, they would provide their customers with even greater benefit. Thus whoever occupies the so-called \u201csweet spot\u201d, i.e. where all three providers meet and therefore combines the advantages of all the providers, will be able to provide customers with a much more valuable service.<\/p>\n

Sustainability as a trigger for more cooperation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Companies, and even governments, have to come up in no time with an answer to the question as to whether, to what extent they already are or by what time they will be sustainable. This also concerns legal departments as parts of companies, and law firms as companies in their own right. The sheer magnitude of this challenge alone calls for the various competencies to be pooled. If we also take into consideration the speed required for the presentation of solutions, an individual legal service provider will be unable to cover all this alone. Customers would welcome it if the three above-mentioned groups of legal service providers were able to pull together and offer legal services from one single source. This would prevent customers from experiencing unnecessary interfaces, duplications, contractions and loss of time. The issue of sustainability (or ESG) would thus be predestined for trying out a new form of value creation that would benefit everyone.<\/p>\n

Possible options for cooperation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, I see the following forms of cooperation in this respect:<\/p>\n