The ESG Litigation Summit 2025 - The 3rd Annual

Heather is Head of the Dispute Resolution Department and is also Head of Travers Smith's ESG and Impact Group. 

Heather has a broad commercial litigation practice, covering the spectrum of high-value and complex disputes (including large scale group claims); such disputes include environmental damage, human rights and product liability litigation. Heather has particular experience in novel and large-scale tort claims, including "parent company liability" claims, as well as in contractual disputes, competition law litigation, shareholder disputes and fraud cases. She is highly experienced in claims involving international and foreign law elements. Her clients include corporates, multinational organisations, banks, financial institutions and private equity houses with business interests across a broad range of sectors.

A particular aspect of Heather's practice is acting for clients facing reputationally sensitive litigation and investigations, and advising clients in relation to corporate risk management including business and human rights issues and ESG-related risk.  Her work in this space includes preventative counselling to clients facing potential ESG-related risk.

Zoe is a widely recognised expert in competition law, with a decade of experience in high-value, complex, and multi-jurisdictional competition, financial, and regulatory claims. She has a distinguished track record in acting on behalf of consumers, investors, and other stakeholders in high-profile collective actions, particularly within the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

Anthea is counsel in our dispute resolution practice and a member of the financial institutions disputes group. 

She advises on a wide range of complex commercial and financial disputes, and on contentious regulatory matters.  Her clients include leading financial institutions and multinationals. 

She has expertise in sustainable finance, including in relation to ESG-related regulation and disputes, and has recently spent time on secondment in the Litigation and Regulatory team at Goldman Sachs. 

Julia leads the German Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations practice. She represents clients in complex disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals in the context of a range of contentious matters. Julia has extensive experience in competition litigation as well as handling complex post-M&A, construction and corporate disputes (including D&O liability, joint venture disputes and shareholder claims) both before state courts and arbitral tribunals. She also acts as an arbitrator, particularly in post-M&A disputes.

As head of the German ESG team, Julia coordinates our cross-practice activities in the rapidly changing ESG space and is a core member of our global ESG practice. She focusses on assisting clients in mitigating the liability risks associated with the ESG megatrend (greenwashing, climate change litigation, human rights issues etc.).

Offering extensive entrepreneurial knowledge and long-standing expertise in regulatory matters around infrastructure and energy, I am a partner in our international Energy and Utilities Sector Group and a member of our Regulatory and Administrative Practice Group.

I advise our clients on infrastructure, energy, regulatory, state aid and environmental law as well as issues arising from public commercial law. In addition, I have expertise in corporate law, administrative, European and real estate law, as well as standardisation.

Marie-Hélène is a commercial litigation partner with special interest in insolvency law, the energy sector and arbitration.

Marie-Hélène has a broad background in commercial litigation. She handles complex civil disputes, often in an international context. Marie-Hélène has particular expertise in specialist areas such as securities and insolvency law and the associated liabilities, such as directors' and auditors' liability. In 2013 she completed the postgraduate Grotius specialization course Financing, Securities and Insolvency Law cum laude. Marie-Hélène publishes and teaches in these areas of law. She was the principal teacher for the course Financing, Securities and Insolvency Law at the Netherlands Bar Association.

Julianne Hughes-Jennett is a partner in Quinn Emanuel’s London office. Julianne is a solicitor advocate with full rights of audience for civil matters at all levels of the English Courts.

She is a versatile disputes lawyer with extensive experience of complex, high-value commercial disputes and investigations including in the financial services, natural resources, life sciences, and technology and telecommunications sectors. She is a specialist in group litigation and her practice also straddles ESG litigation, securities litigation, white collar crime, and investigations, including follow data breaches.  She advises regularly on corporate liability under tort law, climate change litigation and liability for untrue or misleading statements or failures, including greenwashing.  She also has significant experience in litigation funding.

Julianne “has real arbitration experience and expertise” and is recognized as being “very smart and reliable” (Legal 500, 2019) and “very commercial and sharp” (Legal 500, 2022). A dynamic lawyer based in London, Julianne Hughes-Jennett comes recommended for her significant expertise in important litigation matters relating to human rights – “she is a great business and human rights litigation lawyer” (Chambers, 2023). She is perceived as "very versatile, able to go into detail and deal across civil and arbitration aspects together with criminal aspects that are also relevant for cases." Other sources describe her as "sharp and analytical," with a client adding: "She is extremely meticulous and hard-working." (Chambers, 2020). "Julianne is an excellent lawyer" (Chambers, 2023).

Michael joined Burges Salmon in 1994 as a trainee. Having worked for four years on qualification dealing with real estate disputes, he joined the environment team in 2001. He was made a partner in 2009. 

Michael covers contentious and non-contentious business for a range of clients from a variety of sectors.

He has substantial experience of running cases in criminal courts, tribunals and civil courts to the Supreme Court as well as other methods of dispute resolution including arbitration and mediation. He frequently appears as an advocate.

On the non-contentious side, Michael has particular expertise in energy efficiency, contaminated land and environmental permitting but has advised on a broad range of topics over the last 15 years.

Michael is a former editor of the Environmental Law Review, regularly lectures on environmental law and contributes articles to environmental journals.

Michael is recognised as a Band 1 environmental lawyer by Chambers and Partners and is also recommended by Legal 500 and Who's Who Legal.

NICOLAS J.S. LOCKHART’s practice covers public international law, with a focus on trade and environment, and EU law relating to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.

With a broad understanding of sustainability policy, at both national and international level, Nic advises companies on the full breadth of ESG issues. Nic leads Sidley’s work assisting companies in addressing the wave of EU ESG legislation, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), the Deforestation Regulation, and the proposed Green Claims Directive. Nic counsels clients on ESG marketing communications in the face of growing regulatory and litigation risks. He also advises on the EU “Fit for 55” package, including the revised Emissions Trading System, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and ReFuel; and the EU circular economy package, which includes measures addressing batteries, eco-design, reuse, repair, packaging, and waste. Nic has contributed to two papers on the circular economy published by the World Economic Forum, linked here and here. Nic also advises and publishes on carbon pricing, including the use of carbon offsets (e.g., corporate strategy on the use of offsets; and issues arising under the Paris Agreement and CORSIA, an international aviation agreement on carbon pricing).

Robert is special counsel in the litigation and arbitration team.

Dr Robert Kovacs specialises in public international law, international arbitration and business and human rights. He has represented individuals, companies, States, and State-owned entities in international disputes across a range of sectors, including energy, mining, construction, banking, mergers and acquisitions, sport, property and technology. He has a focus on Europe, Asia-Pacific and MENA.

Robert holds a PhD in international law, is the former Co-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Forum for International Arbitration and is a senior fellow at the Melbourne University Law School.

Elena is a Barrister with over 15 years’ experience in contentious financial regulation and corporate and white-collar crime. Elena is currently Assistant General Counsel at Wells Fargo Bank’, London Branch in Financial Crime Legal. Elena previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority in Enforcement Legal advising on regulatory/civil Enforcement cases against both firms and individuals and conducting litigation and advocacy before the Regulatory Decisions Committee, the Upper Tribunal and Courts. Elena also advised on contentious Authorization refusal cases and on Supervisory action. Elena started her career as a Criminal Barrister before holding positions in city law firms specializing in Financial Regulation, economic crime and internal investigations and has particular expertise in AML, Fraud, ABC and Sanctions.

Eliza is an antitrust expert, advising on all matters of competition law and compliance.

Eliza is a Director of Antitrust Compliance in Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets division based in London. Eliza is advising and coordinating antitrust matters globally at Deutsche Bank in this role. Previously, Eliza worked at the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) legal service advising project teams across all tools of competition law. Eliza has also extensive private practice experience in the field of competition law. Eliza was a Partner at International law firm Holman Fenwick and Willan based in London and has worked for Squire Patton Boggs in Brussels in a senior associate role.  Eliza has also trained with DG Competition in Brussels (antitrust and State aid units). She has developed an interest and expertise in the application of antitrust in several sectors, including the financial services and TMT. She has represented clients before the European Courts in Luxembourg on EU matters, including on competition law, trade law, public procurement, debt recovery related matters and damages actions.

Eliza has conducted several dawn raids and has developed bespoke competition law compliance programmes to address different commercial and business needs. She is a UK qualified solicitor before the Senior Courts of England and Wales and a European qualified lawyer and is a member of the Law Society of England & Wales and the Athens Bar. Eliza holds an LLM (Business and Commercial Law) from King’s College London and also a Master of Arts in the Economics of Competition Law from the same University.

Charles is a litigation lawyer specialising in commercial and regulatory disputes. He has particular expertise within the financial services sector including a period as General Counsel of a FTSE 100 financial services firm. 

Charles advises on a broad range of commercial litigation. This includes corporate and shareholder disputes, contractual disputes and fraud claims.   

His financial services regulatory experience encompasses FCA investigations and enforcement proceedings, as well as strategic regulatory advice regarding financial products and investment advice. He regularly advises fintechs, payment service providers, investment managers and platforms.  

Charles is also key lawyer within Osborne Clarke's highly respected pensions disputes team. He undertakes professional negligence work for both claimants and defendants, including advising one of the leading providers of pension products. He has advised on several high profile recent construction/rectification cases as well as advising the Pension Protection Fund. He also advises platforms and SIPP operators on contentious issues.    

Katie is a litigator who specialises in corporate and commercial disputes, for a range of high net worth individuals and corporate clients, often with an international element. Whilst Katie advises on a broad range of disputes, her particular areas of practice include corporate disputes (including shareholder and partnership disputes, warranty and indemnity claims, claims involving directors, breaches of fiduciary duty and misappropriation of company funds and unfair prejudice claims), professional negligence, product liability and supply chain disputes and advising on cross-jurisdictional issues, including Arbitration. Katie frequently advises clients in the healthcare, retail (including food and beverage), financial services and manufacturing and technology sectors. Katie has extensive High Court experience (including at trial and applications involving injunctive relief), as well as experience resolving disputes through alternative means such as mediation and negotiated settlement.

Rekha is a Solicitor Advocate based in our London office who advises in complex, high-value commercial litigation and arbitration often involving allegations of substantial international fraud and has practical experience in the conduct of disputes under the major arbitral institutions, including LCIA, ICC and UNCITRAL. Her work to date has predominantly focused on the banking and financial services, securities, energy and infrastructure industries in Europe, the United States, Africa and Latin America, as well as on ESG issues.

More generally, Rekha is developing a broad ESG litigation practice, with particular emphasis on her interest in environmental issues, climate change law and international human rights.

Chris Owen is a litigation lawyer based in Perth and leads the firm's national pro bono program in Australia.

Chris has more than 15 years' experience working in pro bono and has supervised the pro bono contributions of hundreds of lawyers for more than a decade. He has previously worked in London as a partner in the litigation team of an international law firm where he led the ESG (environment, social and governance) disputes group and co-chaired the firm's international pro bono practice. 

Gaëtan de Robillard is a Senior Associate at Signature Litigation based in Paris. He is a litigator specializing in commercial litigation, product liability, product safety, environment, and climate change related litigation. His experience covers assisting a wide range of multinational businesses before the French Courts in claims filed by NGOs, contracting parties, competitors, or consumers. Gaëtan also advises manufacturers on the implementation of new obligations they face as a result of the ever-increasing development of ESG regulations and of the circular economy in France. He is involved in the defense against several investigations carried out by the French regulator on the reparability, durability and alleged planned obsolescence of products. He is also active on the “conflict mineral” issues that have been raised by some NGOs and States against manufacturers.

Wynne is a Partner in the London office specialising in insurance and reinsurance disputes and insurance regulatory matters. She is a founding member of the firm’s Climate Risk and Resilience practice group

Marit Bosselaar is a senior associate in the litigation department of Loyens & Loeff’s Amsterdam office in the Netherlands. Marit advises and litigates on commercial contracts and liability law matters, including ESG related issues. Marit has vast experience in class action litigation and advising on collective settlements. Marit regularly publishes in scientific journals on the Dutch class action regime.

Michael is an experienced and highly regarded partner in the London commercial and corporate litigation and regulatory practice. His cases are generally multi-million pound/dollar tort and breach of contract disputes (both in arbitration and High Court). Michael has been a litigator for over 25 years. He is the lead partner on substantial High Court claims, including SPF and Saad, and the substantial Aeroflot case. Michael deals with high value and complex international private law cases. He also heads up the firm’s Russia and CIS initiative. Michael has a wide experience of litigation and disputes. These range from multi-million dollar multi-jurisdictional fraud claims through to judicial reviews, tribunal matters, banking disputes, shareholders disputes, construction disputes, wrongful trading actions, actions for and against directors, shipping claims, defamation, breach of contract, tort, insolvency and employment claims. Most of Michael’s clients are international with very many clients coming from Russia, the Former Soviet Union and the Gulf states.

Raminta Dereskeviciute focuses her practice on product compliance, trade regulation (sanctions and export controls) and ESG. She has significant experience in advising on EU and UK chemical legislation (REACH), product safety and liability rules and frequently represents clients before the European Chemicals Agency Board of Appeal. Raminta also advises businesses on the implications Brexit has in relation to a range of regulatory compliance issues.

Raminta counsels clients on the EU and the UK sanctions regimes and export controls, including in higher risk jurisdictions such as Russia and Iran. Her experience covers the review and design of compliance programs, including giving training to client teams on controlled goods, prohibited jurisdictions, persons and activities. Raminta assists companies in liaising with regulators when assessing whether their activities are in breach of EU or UK sanctions regimes, or whether authorisations / licenses from the national authorities are appropriate. Raminta has participated as a chair and speaker on sanctions related panels at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime.

Sarah is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution Group.

Sarah is a solutions-focussed disputes lawyer, who has been resolving disputes using both formal and informal mechanisms for multinational corporations, governments, governmental agencies and international organisations for over 15 years. She leads teams of lawyers and experts to resolve large and complex multi-jurisdiction litigation and arbitration. Sarah is particularly known for her work on environmental, social and governance (including human rights) disputes, IT and outsourcing disputes and fraud investigations and asset recovery, as well as ESG and impact advisory.

Claude Brown is part of the firm’s global environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice. Claude has a particular focus on the environmental and social aspects of ESG.

Claude is recognised as one of the world’s leading legal experts in weather risk management, adaptive finance, green finance and the voluntary carbon markets. He has been involved in the design and implementation of carbon registries, as well as trading platforms. He has extensive experience of transactions using products to mitigate the effect of drought on the agricultural economies of Malawi and Ethiopia, as well as transactions to assist in sustainable energy generation in South America and Asia. He regularly advises on adaptive finance products to assist developing economies generate resilience in the efforts to address climate change in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. He has worked on credit risk mitigants for Multilateral Development Banks to free up their balance sheets in order to provide more financing within LDCs and LMICs, as well as assisting commercial banks in developing sustainable finance strategies and products.

Moira is Head of Business and Human Rights in our Environmental, Social and Governance practice. She has broad international experience across all aspects of sustainability, with a particular focus on governance, integrated risk management, and reporting.

Moira spent twelve years working in senior roles at BT and Vodafone, leading work on responsible business conduct, environmental management, and human and digital rights. She has deep experience applying both legal requirements and global standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, to international business operations. Her work has included human rights governance and policy development, due diligence, artificial intelligence ethics, children's rights, conflict settings, digital rights, sports broadcasting, and supply chain standards and management.

Nathalie Allen is an experienced international arbitration lawyer specialising in both international commercial arbitration and investor state disputes.  Nathalie represents clients before key arbitral institutions including ICC, LCIA, SCC, ICSID and AAA, and in arbitrations conducted under the UNCITRAL Rules, ICSID and under foreign investment laws.   Nathalie has also acted in many arbitrations governed by a variety of different jurisdictions.