The ESG Litigation Summit 2025 - The 3rd Annual

Sir Robin Knowles CBE commenced practice at the Bar in 1984, and was appointed a QC in 1999. His practice was in commercial, financial, company and insolvency law. He became the Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association of England & Wales and of Advocate (the Bar Pro Bono Unit) and the National Pro Bono Centre.

In 1998 he was appointed an Assistant Recorder, a Recorder in 2000 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2007, sitting in the Crown Court, the Chancery Division and the Commercial Court. He is a qualified mediator and has sat as an arbitrator. He became a High Court Judge in 2014.Sir Robin is the Judge with day-to-day responsibility for the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts, and is a board member of the Financial Markets Law Committee. He has served as Chairman of the International Committee of the Judicial College and as a member of the Civil Justice Council. Through the pandemic he chaired the cross-sector MR’s Working Group on possession proceedings. Within the HMCTS Reform Programme he chairs the Litigants in Person Engagement Group (LIPEG).

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.

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.

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.

Anthony is our Head of Litigation. He brings a wealth of experience having worked in the Commercial Litigation department of another leading law firm prior to joining the team at Ken Kennedy Law. Anthony’s experience includes general civil litigation and advisory work, acting for private companies, private equity funds, individuals, charities and financial institutions in various matters to include contract law disputes, enforcement, recovery actions, and landlord and tenant disputes. He also has experience in planning and environmental law and a keen interest in Environmental and Social Governance.

Prior to being admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in Ireland, Anthony qualified as a barrister with the Honourable Society of King’s Inns and practiced for a number of years in civil litigation. Anthony is a member of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association as well as the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

Richard Druce is an expert in the energy and utility sectors. He provides compelling economic analysis to support clients’ engagements in regulatory proceedings and disputes. He also helps sector regulators design and implement new policies and regulations and investors gain insights into opportunities and risks from transactions.

Much of Mr. Druce’s work involves advice during electricity, gas, and water price control reviews on topics including incentive design, cost-benefit analysis, valuation and willingness-to-pay studies, cost assessment and benchmarking, and regulatory finance issues.

Mr. Druce also designs and analyzes reforms to market design and network charging arrangements in infrastructure industries. He advises clients on policies supporting renewable energy integration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and encouraging distributed energy resources and “smart grid” technologies.

In the oil and gas industry, Mr. Druce provides expert evidence in pricing disputes. He also analyzes the effects of low carbon investments and decarbonisation policies, including emissions trading schemes. He has worked across the value chain, including upstream production, mid-stream transportation and processing, and downstream.

Mr. Druce has served as an expert in proceedings before the English High Court, the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the Hague Court of Appeal, and the Alberta Utilities Commission. His work spans a range of geographies including the UK and Ireland, Continental Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Canada, and Asia.

Lawrence is a leading corporate communications specialist with a track record as an analyst, in City PR and in investor relations. Co-founding DRD Partnership in 2012, Lawrence previously worked at Brunswick and as Head of Financial and Corporate PR at Marks and Spencer Group plc. In addition to his leadership role at DRD, Lawrence now advises a range of clients with a particular focus on litigation, risk preparedness, ESG reporting, crisis and reputation management.

He is a former solicitor-advocate, having qualified in 2014. He has advised individuals, corporates and sovereigns in a variety of commercial matters involving both litigation and arbitration. Jacob accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ practice and has a particular interest in cases relating to technology, data and artificial intelligence. He has acted as sole counsel in the High Court, an LCIA Arbitration and the Court of Appeal and as junior counsel in the UK Supreme Court. He is on the Attorney-General’s Panel of Counsel. He is currently advising the UK Government (Office for AI) on a variety of legal and policy issues.

Daniel has more than 10 years’ experience advising clients from a range of sectors and across multiple jurisdictions on all aspects of international financial and trade sanctions and is a recognised expert in his field.

He provides commercially-focused advice on UK and EU sanctions, as well as the application of US sanctions to non-US persons.

He and his team of specialist sanctions lawyers investigate suspected breaches of sanctions, advise on how best to engage with regulators (including self reporting in the UK and other jurisdictions), and recommend effective remediation measures.

Anna Brownrigg has a broad commercial disputes practice and assists clients resolve complex commercial and regulatory disputes through litigation, arbitration and mediation. 

Anna advises UK and foreign corporations, state-owned entities and individuals, often with a cross-border dimension. Anna speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and she regularly acts for foreign clients in different jurisdictions.

Anna has particular expertise in the financial sector and in oil, gas, mining and infrastructure disputes. Early in her career Anna worked in-house at Petrobras, Brazil handling disputes, investigations and ESG related risks, and she has since acted for and against international energy and mining companies in cases around the globe involving environmental damage, breach of contract and warranty claims, fraud and corruption and ESG disputes. 

Asli oversees CT Group’s global intelligence and investigation projects, and specialises in helping clients navigate crises and reputational issues, complex mergers and acquisitions, ESG and integrity due diligence matters and international disputes. She combines her understanding of ever-changing regulatory environments with the inner workings of emerging and frontier markets.

Asli is a former investment banking professional with over two decades of experience advising corporate and private clients to resolve their most critical issues.

Prior to joining CT Group, she was at Goldman Sachs, Standard Bank and a Swiss multi-family office, where she focused on structured finance, risk management and facilitating investments into and out of developing markets.

Louise is an experienced energy and environmental disputes partner who leads the firm's UK energy regulatory practice.

Following her joint degree in Chemistry and Law, Louise's career has focussed on resolving energy, chemicals and environmental disputes. She has developed niche experience in the energy sector, advising regulated entities and companies who may wish to challenge regulatory decisions by way of judicial review, and advising licensees facing regulatory enforcement investigations, typically by Ofgem.

Sylvie Gallage-Alwis is one of the founding partners of the Paris office of Signature Litigation. She is an avocat à la cour in France and a solicitor in England and Wales. Sylvie has almost 20 years’ experience in complex disputes linked to products, namely product liability, product safety, toxic tort, mass litigation/class actions, regulatory compliance and the environment. She represents manufacturers across industries (e.g. life sciences, automotive, electronic products, cosmetics, energy and food). She is one of the key French lawyers acting for companies in the field of toxic tort, where she has gained unprecedented experience in mass and group litigation and seen the case law she obtained in favor of companies mentioned in several Codes as representing major developments in French law. Her practice is one of the largest of the French market and ranked Band 1 by The Legal 500. She has won several awards such as the Lexology Client Choice award in Product Liability in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, with General Counsels stating about her that she “embodies the epitome of client service, seamlessly merging quality, value, and foresight. Her advice is not just legally sound but exhibits a profound understanding of our business goals and industry nuances”. Sylvie is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), the largest organization of defense lawyers and in-house attorneys.

Frank Peters is a lawyer and Head of Impact & Litigation and co-founder of our firm. He is an experienced litigator. Frank has a strong focus on corporate litigation, class actions and ESG. He acts for shareholders, companies and NGOs. He previously worked at Brandeis, Spigt Litigators and De Brauw.

Sonja is a member of the Firm's Global Commercial Litigation Practice based in Frankfurt. She advises national and multinational clients on complex national and cross-border commercial disputes with a particular focus on financial services, real estate private equity and consumer & retail litigation as well as technology, internet, and social media law litigation.

Sonja has extensive experience in handling litigations in court in connection with securities, financial market instruments, corporate and real estate law. She is a proven expert in the field of collective redress and handled a various numbers of mass proceedings for the financial industry and for internet and social media providers. Furthermore, Sonja supports clients in complex disputes relating to liability issues (including managing directors' liability), shareholder activism and post-M&A matters. In the context of M&A transactions she advises clients on liability and litigation risks. Sonja has also a strong expertise in negotiating complex agreements and assists her clients in the pre-trial stadium.

Sonja further advises her clients in ESG litigation and liability topics in particular with a focus to human rights due diligence, supply chain and climate change disputes. She regularly speaks at conferences and client seminars on ESG-topics in particular in the financial and the consumer & retail industry.