Abreu Advogados invests on an integrated offer of ESG services

Abreu Advogados announces a new integrated service with the purpose of responding to the growing expectations of the market for the development and implementation of the whole spectrum of legal and commercial issues related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).

Abreu Advogados presents to its clients a new service dedicated to the analysis and implementation of ESG-related practices. Combining their extensive experience in monitoring sustainability issues and in response to the growing need of the market to tackle today’s global challenges, the firm’s latest service is led by three partners for the three core areas of the ESG proposal, José Eduardo Martins (Environment), Pedro Pais de Almeida (Social), and Alexandra Courela (Governance). A multidisciplinary team that includes lawyers and of counsel with experience in sustainable finance, M&A, labor law, environmental law, litigation, and EU law, among many other areas.

Abreu Advogados’ latest service comes at a time when business leaders face great pressure to provide a concrete response to the global challenges of sustainability and the green economy, accelerated by the effects of the pandemic and requiring the implementation of measures that increase the resilience of their organizations while also integrating new and diverse social, environmental and governance issues that are gradually becoming more fundamental to clients, suppliers, investors and partners.

With an extensive and historical experience in this area, Abreu Advogados has accompanied some of the main national projects in providing advice in areas such as corporate management, crisis management, social responsibility and sustainability, diversity and inclusion, ethics and compliance. The law firm has been a pioneer in these areas since its foundation, whether in its own management or in advising clients, and now intends to provide its clients and partners with its expertise on issues related to environmental, social responsibility and governance challenges.

For José Eduardo Martins, partner at Abreu Advogados, “Our ESG service was developed to respond in an assertive manner to the path that organizations will inevitably have to follow in order to keep up with the rapid transition of the economy that is taking place in Europe, which brings different challenges, especially for climate and environmental issues, areas in which the legislation has been undergoing constant adaptations and revisions that put major pressure on public and private organizations to monitor and implement the new European and national measures”.

Pedro Pais de Almeida, partner at Abreu Advogados, reinforces “Our latest ESG service is aligned with the relevant and vast experience of our own firm. Throughout our history we have considered corporate sustainability as inseparable from environmental, social and governance issues. Abreu Advogados was a pioneer in Portugal in the implementation of sustainable measures in our management, in making international commitments to sustainability and also in measuring our main sustainability indicators. In May 2009, we were the first law firm in Portugal to publicly share, every two years, a full report on our environmental, social and financial data, in a clear commitment to transparency that makes us proud but also aware of the challenge of setting an example“, emphasizes Pedro Pais de Almeida, partner at Abreu Advogados.

The ESG service is one of the law firm’s bets for 2021, aligning its strategic policy for advising on issues that are already part of Abreu Advogados’ DNA and that have become central in transnational governmental policies in the latest years.

Alexandra Courela, partner at Abreu Advogados, also comments: “The integrated ESG service that we are presenting is our response to the current and future challenges faced by clients and partners in a fast-paced global context that calls for the review of business models based upon sustainability. Business decision making is inevitable and it’s increasingly clear that a service of excellence may become irrelevant if it is not accompanied by an active concern of the organization with environmental issues and the social impact of management policies. Recently we have seen significant changes that have had an impact on the market, particularly in the financial markets, where sustainable investments and the integration of ESG criteria into corporate strategy have become priority criteria for assessing organizational quality and competitiveness”.

Since its foundation in 1993, Abreu Advogados has been a pioneer at environmental, social and governance issues, being the first law firm in Portugal to publish a Sustainability Report (May 2009) under the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, to publish its accounts and to measure its carbon footprint. Abreu Advogados was the first and only law firm to publish a manual of principles, values and objectives that guide its staff. It is also committed to a number of national and international voluntary initiatives aimed to create a more sustainable business universe, including the United Nations Global Compact, the Business Council for Sustainable Development (or just BCSD), and has obtained the international certification B Corporation.

Find out more here about Abreu Advogados new Sustainability and ESG service.