I live in New York City, which is currently experiencing a brutal heat wave, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius). Large swaths of the United States have also been trying to cope with scorching temperatures this past week.
Elsewhere in the world, abnormally high temperatures were blamed this week for the deaths of more than 550 people in Saudi Arabia during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Over the past few months, blistering heat is said to have been responsible for deaths in places as disparate as Mexico, Greece, India and Mali. Global temperatures have been the highest since modern record-keeping began, putting 2024 on course to be the hottest year in recorded history.
So what does this have to do with the legal industry?
It turns out that many of the world’s biggest and richest law firms, including Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, and White & Case, are playing an outsized role helping companies with fossil fuel-related transactions, litigation and lobbying, according to a new study. Habiba Cullen-Jafar writes that Law Students for Climate Accountability found that between 2019 and 2023, the top 100 firms in the world facilitated $2.89 trillion in fossil fuel transactions, engaged in 518 instances of climate-exacerbating representation, and received $32.97 million in compensation for lobbying on behalf of fossil fuel interest.
Among the worst offenders on the transactional side were A&O Shearman and White & Case, the group found. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer and Latham & Watkins were listed among those handling fossil fuel-related litigation on behalf of polluters. And Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld received the most compensation for fossil fuel-related lobbying, bringing in $7.9 million between 2018 and 2023.
To be sure, this work has proved lucrative many law firm leaders will argue that they should not bend to political or societal pressures when choosing whether to represent a client. Just last week, Dario Sabaghi wrote that White & Case was a key adviser to Saudi Aramco on a secondary public offering involving the sale of $11.2 billion worth of shares in the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company. White & Case and Aramco have enjoyed a relationship that has spanned more than 70 years.
Also, an increasing number of law firms, including some of the same firms doing fossil fuel-related transactions or litigation, are doing renewable energy and energy-transition-related work—a legal practice area that is expected to grow. But the report says the industry continues to shore up record profits for oil companies and fight to keep the world hooked on fossil fuels. And it accuses Big Law of failing to keep up with governments and other financially and politically powerful institutions that have taken steps toward mitigating climate change.
Should law firms care?
