Partners Erin Martin and Lance Dial are featured in a The Legal Intelligencer article as part of a group of lawyers navigating the quickly evolving climate change disclosure regulatory landscape tied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rules.
Erin called the SEC’s proposed climate disclosures for public companies “the most hotly debated disclosure initiative to come out of the SEC since executive compensation back in the early 2000s,” highlighting the hundreds of thousands of public comments on the SEC’s rulemaking.
“I can’t recall another rulemaking that has touched such a nerve with the general public, where you have interest across the board from people who don’t typically follow this space,” Erin said.
Lance discussed the issue of greenwashing in the asset management space—an issue the SEC addresses in some of its latest rulemaking.
“The SEC is worried that, with a vague disclosure, a fund might be attracting investors who are really concerned about ESG investing and want to invest for ethical purposes or think that ESG considerations are material to the way they invest in a fund and they’re not getting what they think they’re getting,” Lance said.