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April 2025 Newsletter

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Legal Voices for the Future
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Dear LVF Members

Welcome to Legal Voices for the Future’s April newsletter! This edition includes:

  • A look back at our First April knowledge session on ‘the Darker Side of ESG’
  • Our upcoming LVF Education and LVF Community events
  • Other events which may be of interest to members
  • LVF’s favourite podcasts (including an interview with LVF!)

As Margaret J. Wheatley said, “there is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about” and given what is currently happening around the globe, we are particularly feeling the importance of our community. We believe that working as a community is where real change can happen, and we always want to be a safe and welcoming space where members can freely express their views without repercussion.

First April Knowledge Session with Charlotte Branfield

On 2 April we had another full house for our first April knowledge session on the ‘Darker Side of ESG’, led by LVF member Charlotte Branfield, a barrister at Three Raymond Buildings. If you missed the session you can catch the recording on our YouTube channel here.

Presentation on financial crime

Charlotte kicked off with a presentation on ‘Proceeds of Crime 101’, introducing the UK’s financial crime legislation including the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), Civil Recovery Orders and freezing orders.

She then asked us to consider how this legislation could be used for environmental/ESG crimes, particularly with the civil standard of proof. Among other things, Charlotte discussed the ground-breaking case of R. (World Uyghur Conference) v National Crime Agency which addressed the application of POCA in the context of international supply chains. This is an area of law which very few people are talking about in the context of environmental issues.

Creative content

During the creative workshop, we discussed the essay “Keeping the iron from our souls” by John Burroughs from his collection “The Art of Seeing Things” edited by Charlotte Zoe Walker. This describes an industrial wasteland in Pittsburgh, and we were asked to consider how businesses might be held to account for their supply chain, or whether society is too commercialised and materialistic. Conversations ranged from topics like the effectiveness of regulation vs criminalisation and how to protect nature, to the difficulties with quantifying damage and investigating supply chains.

Panel discussion

Our final part of the evening was a panel interview with experts Olivia Dakeyne (Research Principal at Themis) and Laura Middleton (who leads PwC’s ESG Investigations team), and it was fascinating hearing their insights. Highlights included:

  • Hearing about Laura’s journey into focusing on ESG investigations, and some of the investigations she has been involved in – some of which have lasted decades.
  • Olivia discussed her work on the intersection between environmental crimes and financial crimes. She noted that regulators will often pursue prosecutions for economic crimes like tax evasion or bribery rather than environmental crimes.
  • Given the amount of money being made in these illegal activities, it is surprising that law enforcement aren’t instigating more investigations. All panellists agreed that they would have expected better regulation and enforcement to be in place by now. In their absence, investigations often start after an investigative journalist uncovers and reports on an issue.
  • The speakers discussed the difficulty with investigating supply chains and financial flows, but noted that methods are becoming more sophisticated – investigators are using things like satellite imagery and vehicle tracking. 

We’re so grateful to Charlotte for leading the session, to the panellists for giving us insights into their experience, and to George Littlejohn at The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment for hosting us and providing drinks and snacks.

If you’d like to read more:

We will also shortly be circulating some further resources and the speakers’ responses to the online Q&A to those who registered to attend the knowledge session.

Opportunity: If you found this knowledge session interesting and would like to contribute to an article on the topic of environmental crime and financial crime legislation with Charlotte and LVF, please email us.

Upcoming events

LVF Education

  • LVF’s April knowledge session will be on 30 April at 6.30 (BST), on the topic of the IMO and climate change. The session will be hosted by our Stewardship Committee member Verity Thompson! Link to register here.
  • LVF’s May knowledge session, hosted by our members Varnika Chawla and Tasha Lea, will be on scaling nature based investment through harnessing institutional capital. Details will be circulated soon!

Details of our other knowledge sessions are below, and you can also always find more about our upcoming events on our website and Ticketsource page, and details of our past events on our website.

LVF Community

  • Book club launch – last week we emailed about the launch of our bi-annual book club and swap! The first theme is on insects 🐞 – read one of the books on the list and then meet to discuss and swap knowledge / books! We will be discussing our chosen books at our July community event which will be announced soon!
  • Members Blind Meet-Up ☕ – Sign up for our inaugural Members’ Blind Meet-Up (online or in person) by filling out some details in this questionnaire and we will be in touch via email.
  • Wakelyns Farm Field Trip🌾 – Next month will be our first LVF field trip to Wakleyns Farm in Sussex, UK and we are really looking forward to hearing David Wolfe QC dissect a judicial review case on farming activities’ impact on the environment.

Other events

Here are some other upcoming events that may be of interest:

  • 22 April, 7pm (BST) – in person in London – Community Power in Waltham Forest: Panel Discussion: To celebrate Earth Day 2025, this will discuss how to rapidly expand renewable energy production in a way that benefits local communities. Sign up here.
  • 24 April, 2 – 4pm (BST) – in person in London and online – Against the (Trade) Winds: Legal Tools for Europe to Strengthen Climate Finance: This will discuss global efforts to meet climate finance. Sign up here.
  • 6 May, 4:30-6pm (BST) – in person in London – Getting transformative change right for biodiversity & climate change policy: the talk will focus on the movement within environmental science from assessing change towards finding socially valuable “solutions” and what this means for environmental assessment processes, social participation and interdisciplinarity. You can book your ticket here.
  • 17 May, 3:30-4:30pm (BST) – in person in London – Climate Change for a Fairer World with Tony Juniper and Natalie Bennett: environmentalist Tony Juniper will discuss his new book, Just Earth, with the former leader of the Green Party, Nathalie Bennett, who also authored Change Everything. Book here (note there is a cost!)
  • 13 May, 2-2:30pm (BST) – online – Monthly Climate Change Briefing with the Environmental Law Institute: the Environmental Law Institute will be hosting a webinar with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment from the UCLA School of Law. You can register for free here.
  • 17-21 June – in person or online – UKELA Annual Conference 2025: You can attend the UKELA annual conference in person or online. Students can receive discounted tickets if they are also UKELA members. Find out more about the event and ticket options here.

And if you’re looking for something different in London:

  • Running until 5 May: Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture: The Saatchi Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition celebrating the use of flowers in contemporary art and across different cultures. You can book a ticket to attend in person here.
  • Open daily: Fixing Our Broken Planet Gallery at the Natural History Museum: the NHM in London has a new display which considers the challenges facing our planet today. It brings together over 200 specimens which set out our impact on the natural world and how we can make positive change. You can go visit yourself by clicking here.
  • Until 2 May: Kyoto Play : the Kyoto Play, based on the events leading up to the Kyoto Protocol is running until 2 May. Members of the Stewardship Committee have been and can definitely recommend this play. You can still find tickets here.

We’d love to hear from you if you attend one of these events!

Podcasts on climate and biodiversity

Want something new to listen to on your commute or while sipping your morning coffee ☕? We previously shared some of our favourite books with you and now we wanted to share some of the podcasts we have listened to 🎙️

  • Law Talks Podcast (logo above) interviewed Ming Zee, Dominika and Riley from LVF to discuss their career journeys, what led to their interests in climate and biodiversity and their time on the LVF Stewardship Committee. They discuss what LVF’s mission is and how we try to achieve this! 
  • The Case 4 Conservations Podcast interviewed our co-founder Zaneta Sedilekova and had a discussion on biodiversity risk and the law. Zaneta talks about getting to know the vulnerabilities in supply chains and the duality of impacts to and from biodiversity on supply chains. 
  • A Common Concern: The Climate Justice Podcast is a podcast launched by Matrix Chambers looking at all things related to climate change and climate justice. One episode focuses on tipping points and the law, an interesting listen considering we are reaching many of those tipping points. 
  • UCL Generation One: the Climate Podcast has numerous seasons of podcasts on different aspects of climate change and biodiversity. After our interesting webinar with E.ON, maybe season 5 episode 1 on “Great British Energy: Real green policies or just hot air?” might be of interest. Or if you’re curious about local conservation’s scalability, try season 5 episode 2 on whether local conservation efforts can grow into global impact. 
  • Rare Earth by the BBC: the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast has posted a podcast on how to clean up the shipping industry, which we will be discussing at our next Knowledge Session. 

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