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LEADING DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS HOLD A HISTORICAL SIT-IN AT FIVE FOSSIL FUEL ENABLING ‘MAGIC CIRCLE’ LAW FIRMS
In a global first, lawyers come face to face with doctors and scientists questioning the role of lawyers in the climate crisis as legal advisors to and representatives of the fossil fuel industry. Encouraging them to explore the way lawyers have handled their professional responsibilities in the face of rapidly changing global challenges that the fossil fuel industry poses to the health of patients and the planet.
Are lawyers achieving the right balance between serving the interests of their clients and the broader interests of society?
Today, Friday 29 November 2024, around 50 leading doctors and scientists brought messages of truth and accountability to the heart of the legal industry in the City of London, while lawyers hand-delivered an important letter from Lawyers Are Responsible (LAR), addressed to the senior partners of each firm. The letter was accompanied by a Counsel’s Opinion from LAR.
LAR is an unincorporated association of lawyers – both solicitors and barristers – working to tackle the climate & ecological crises, principally by seeking to change the legal profession’s role in enabling the current and future consequences of the actions of the fossil fuel industry [1]. LAR aims to build on their original Declaration of Conscience [2] to address objectives such as de-legitimising legal support for fossil fuels by making it professionally unacceptable for law firms to advise on new fossil fuel projects. This would remove a critical support structure for the fossil fuel industry.
The Counsel’s Opinion had been prepared by leading Counsel in Employment and Human Rights law [3] and it advised on the scenario where lawyers who are working may hold deep convictions about tackling the climate crisis.
Stopping Fossil Fuel work
The Opinion addressed three areas: (1) Refusing work connected with fossil fuel extraction (conscientious objection activities); (2) Blowing the whistle in respect of their employers, clients or third parties (whistleblowing activities); (3) Exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest outside of their workplace, including where this leads to a risk of criminal sanctions (protest activities) [4].
The UK Legal Industry’s Ties to Fossil Fuel Companies
According to data from Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA), UK law firms play a key role in exacerbating the climate and ecological emergency. In the years following the Paris Agreement from 2018 to 2022, 55 firms facilitated £1.48 trillion in fossil fuel projects in the context of transactional work, more than 2.5 times the amount these firms facilitated for the renewable energy industry (£546 billion) [5]. During this period, the five firms that form the ‘Magic Circle’ (Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and the firm formerly known as Allen & Overy) were collectively responsible for over £285 billion worth of fossil fuel transactions. Four out of the five firms (A&O Shearman, Freshfields, Linklaters, Clifford Chance) were also given the worst rating ‘F’ in the LSCA 2024 scorecard [6].
LAR has written to several ‘Magic Circle’ law firms [7] to request that they withhold their services in respect of new fossil fuel projects, but has not received a commitment from any of them to do so.
Quotes:
“The climate crisis is here and now, disrupting and destroying lives in all parts of the world, and it is escalating rapidly. We have to do everything possible to redirect resources, away from fossil fuels and towards alternative energy. As doctors, nurses and scientists, we want to make lawyers aware of their pivotal role in fossil fuel contracts, and make it ok for them to opt out of fossil fuel work. This is their chance to make a difference to their children and grandchildren’s future.”
Dr. Fiona Godlee, former editor of the British Medical Journal
‘Some people don’t understand how significant global warming is. Climate change is happening now! We are on the edge of irreversibility. Climate change effects not only the habitats around the world, but it effects our day to day life and is devastating the world. Lawyers know and understand how prominent they are in the climate crisis. They need to start taking responsibility and stop signing contracts for the use of fossil fuels. For the sake of your family’s future, lawyers, please stop abrogating your responsibility and help the world in this climate crisis.’
Professor Dame Parveen Kumar DBE, Emerita Professor of medicine and education, Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry, Queen Mary University of London
“Lawyers play a crucial role in the exploitation of new oil and gas. This includes creating and administering the legal contracts related to the finance and management of fossil fuels extraction. With record breaking global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions, we now need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels. This means we must leave fossil fuels reserves in the ground.”
Dr. James Dyke, Associate Professor in Earth System Science, and Assistant Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter
Notes:
[1] LAR Website – www.lar.earth
[2] LAR Website: Declaration of Conscience – https://www.lar.earth/sign/
[3] Cloisters Chambers: UK Workplace Protections for Conscientious Objection relating to the Climate Crisis – https://www.cloisters.com/insights/uk-workplace-protections-for-conscientious-objection-relating-to-the-climate-crisis
[4] LAR Website: Counsel’s Opinion on Conscientious Objection at Work https://www.lar.earth/conscientious-objection-at-work/
[5] The Carbon Circle: The UK Legal Industry’s Ties to Fossil Fuel Companies (10 May 2023) https://www.ls4ca.org/blog-show-all/the-carbon-circle
[6] 2024 Climate Scorecard https://www.ls4ca.org/scorecard
[7] LAR Website – https://www.lar.earth/magic-circle-actions/