In Spitalfields early this morning, workers at two major City law firms were greeted by an exhibition of climate crisis photographs by Gideon Mendel – haunting portraits of people in countries around the world, including the UK, who have faced upheaval and loss of businesses and homes as a result of flooding.
Lawyers Are Responsible is a collective of lawyers who are trying to hold their sector to account for its part in legitimising and enabling the climate and ecological crisis. They believe that lawyers are granted a special responsibility by society to uphold public interest, but that the lawyers in these big commercial firms pursue profit at all costs, and the cost, by continuing to facilitate fossil fuel extractivism, is the future of the planet itself.
One of the companies targeted today is A&O Shearman whose clients include the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is planning to significantly expand its oil and gas extraction into 2027 and beyond. Another firm is Akin, which boasts of a 75-strong team of lobbyists “empowering the oil and gas industry” for decades.
Lawyers Are Responsible were supported by members of the Fossil Free London choir, who intermittently serenaded workers arriving this morning. The action was also part of #ClimateWeek2024 taking place across the world as world leaders meet in Baku for COP29.
The action was the first escalation of an ongoing campaign asking legal firms to abide by recent Law Society guidance which recommends lawyers consider the climate crisis in their choice of clients. According to Monika Sobiecki who is a partner at Bindmans LLP, unlike corporations, legal firms are partnerships, and so are not beholden to shareholders and to maximising profit. It’s actually up to the partners to decide on the nature of their business, and so firms like A&O Shearman and Akin are continuing to enable climate breakdown simply through inertia or greed.
