Episodes

  • 1: Professor John Ruggie on business and sustainability

    1: Professor John Ruggie on business and sustainability
    Jun 16 2021
    The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. Their aim was to identify and clarify policies and standards for business and human rights. While they do not have legally binding force, the political consensus behind their endorsement established them as the most authoritative global framework to address adverse business impacts on all human rights.

    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, Director of the IBA's Legal Policy and Research Unit (LPRU), and Maria Pia Sacco, LPRU Senior Project Lawyer, speak to Professor John Ruggie, the author of the UNGPs, who was appointed by Kofi Annan as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for business and human rights in 2005. Together, they discuss the impact of the UNGPs and future developments in the area of business and sustainability.
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    31 mins
  • 2: Sustainable solutions: an interview with Marks & Spencer’s General Counsel and experts from private practice

    2: Sustainable solutions: an interview with Marks & Spencer’s General Counsel and experts from private practice
    Jul 5 2021
    The second episode of the series of podcasts on business and sustainability from the International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU).

    In this episode, Nick Folland (General Counsel, Marks & Spencer) and Sarah Dickson (Deputy General Counsel,  Marks & Spencer), Sara Carnegie (IBA Director of Legal Projects) and Maria Pia Sacco (LPRU Senior Project Lawyer), discuss:

    • how in-house legal teams are navigating the evolving and increasingly fragmented legal framework regarding business and human rights and ESG;
    • the importance of multi-stakeholder initiative and collaborations in the fight against modern slavery in global supply chains;
    • the importance of embedding sustainability in the business model of a company.
    The conversation continues with IBA members, Jonathan Drimmer (Partner, Paul Hastings), Rae Lindsay (Partner, Clifford Chance) and Hanim Hamzah (Regional Managing Partner, ZICO Law Network), to understand:

    • how lawyers can support companies in their journey towards sustainability;
    • the implications of a potential European legislation on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for companies outside of the EU;
    • how business and human rights and sustainability have gained momentum in the global legal community; and
    • the way in which law firms are developing to offer legal services in these areas of specialisation.
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    42 mins
  • 3: Mental wellbeing: interview with Graham Boal QC

    3: Mental wellbeing: interview with Graham Boal QC
    Aug 19 2021
    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director, speaks to Graham Boal QC, former judge at the Old Bailey, about imposter syndrome and how success is not necessarily synonymous with greater confidence and wellbeing. They also focus on the devastating effects of alcoholism and depression, the stigma commonly associated with them and why promoting mental wellbeing is so important to ensure sustainable career development for legal professionals.
     
    The discussion draws on personal accounts from Boal's memoirs, A Drink at the Bar: A memoir of crime, justice and overcoming personal demons, and references the ongoing work of the IBA on lawyer wellbeing in a global context. 
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    31 mins
  • 4: Sustainable mining: an interview with Anglo American, IBA President and experts from private practice

    4: Sustainable mining: an interview with Anglo American, IBA President and experts from private practice
    Oct 8 2021
    In this episode, Jonathan Hoch (Head of Legal and Commercial at Anglo American) speaks with Sara Carnegie (IBA Director of Legal Projects) and Maria Pia Sacco (LPRU Senior Project Lawyer) about how Anglo American has become a leader in sustainable mining, with sustainability increasingly becoming a competitive advantage.

    The conversation continues with IBA President, Sternford Moyo, who sheds light on the link between poverty, human rights, and natural resources, highlighting the importance of engaging with local communities and rightsholders.

    Finally, Stéphane Brabant and Maria Angelica Burgos talk about the role lawyers can play in promoting ESG factors, the importance for CEOs to obtain a social license and the link between corruption and human rights violations. 
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    39 mins
  • 5: Sustainable finance – interview with BlackRock and experts from private practice

    5: Sustainable finance – interview with BlackRock and experts from private practice
    Dec 13 2021
    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director and Maria Pia Sacco, LPRU Senior Project Lawyer, interview Michelle Edkins, Managing Director of BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team, and Ariel Smilowitz, an associate on the Investment Stewardship team, to explore the role of investment stewardship in promoting sustainability. 
     
     The conversation continues with Jeroen Ouwehand, Global Senior Partner at Clifford Chance, Roberto Randazzo, a partner at Legance and Ramya S Tiller, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, with the aim of understanding the regulatory landscape regarding sustainable finance, the importance of ESG transparency and the need for a common language to curb the risk of greenwashing.
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    43 mins
  • 6: Sustainable law in action: Non-disclosure agreements – an interview with Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane

    6: Sustainable law in action: Non-disclosure agreements – an interview with Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane
    Feb 28 2022
    The International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU) has published a new episode on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), as part of their series of podcasts on business and sustainability.
    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director, speaks to Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane about their experience with NDAs and the ‘Can’t Buy My Silence’ campaign which they launched in September 2021.
    Zelda Perkins was the former personal assistant of disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein and spoke out about her experience in 2017, breaching the NDA by doing so. Julie Macfarlane is a Canadian law professor and world expert on NDAs.

    In recent years, the IBA has carried out extensive work on bullying and sexual harassment in the legal profession, launching a groundbreaking report in 2019, followed by a global campaign to highlight the findings and recommendations. 
    The work has included discussion about the use of NDAs and the moral concerns about their prevalence in sexual harassment cases. Zelda and Julie shed light on this dark and complex area of law, where victims often feel cheated and intimidated by the process, and talk about their campaign to bring about legislative change on a global scale.
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    22 mins
  • 7: Sustainable Law in Action: How to be a lawyer in wartime – an interview with Ukrainian lawyer Nazar Chernyavsky

    7: Sustainable Law in Action: How to be a lawyer in wartime – an interview with Ukrainian lawyer Nazar Chernyavsky
    Jul 14 2022
    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director, speaks with Nazar Chernyavsky, partner at the Ukrainian law firm Sayenko Kharenko and Vice-Chair of the IBA Technology Law Committee, about how life and work has changed for Ukrainian lawyers since the start of the Russian invasion.
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    25 mins
  • 8: A conversation with Georgia Dawson: how can we achieve true equality in the legal profession?

    8: A conversation with Georgia Dawson: how can we achieve true equality in the legal profession?
    Jan 24 2023
    The International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU) has published a new podcast on achieving gender equality at the highest levels of the legal profession, as part of their series on business and sustainability.

    In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director and Beatriz Martínez, project lawyer, speak with the Senior Partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Georgia Dawson, the first woman to be appointed to this position within a Magic Circle firm.

    They discuss the challenges facing female lawyers in attaining and retaining senior positions in the legal profession, and the initiatives and measures that law firms can take to ensure that these workplaces adequately foster and achieve a diverse and inclusive environment.

    This discussion is part of the LPRU’s ongoing project, '50:50 by 2030', to study the global underrepresentation of female lawyers in senior roles across the legal profession.
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    30 mins