AGM 2023 in Sydney

Ewa Lejman-Widz , Attorney at Law, shares with us the interesting thoughts she brought back from this year’s Ally Law global members’ convention (AGM 2023) held by law firm Russel Kennedy in Sydney.

• This year’s AGM theme was ‘Sustainable business in a competitive, regulated and environmentally conscious world’. Over the course of the four-day event, delegates, guest-clients and invited speakers discussed best practices for creating and running resilient, forward-thinking businesses.
• The issue that particularly interested her was B Corp certification. Do you know what a B Corp is and why lawyers are interested in it?
• Certified B Corporations (‘B Corps’) are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, as well as transparency and accountability.
• B Lab was founded in 2006 in the United States, only one year later 82 companies had already been certified, and the number of B Corps members is steadily growing. Today, there are almost 6,000 B Corps worldwide.
• Many Ally Law members are considering or have already started the process of B Corp certification. In the view of many lawyers, B Corp is the so-called ‘Fairtrade’ of the business world, meaning that becoming B Corp certified will be an important part of many law firms’ strategy.
• For law firms that provide advice to clients, embedding sustainability into the DNA of the firm can help meet client requirements. There is no doubt that law firms become better placed to advise clients on ESG issues if they themselves can demonstrate that their firm’s operations are sustainable.
• According to Eve, this is just the beginning of a trend that will drive not only law firms but business in the coming years.
• What is your opinion?