Brain Food For General Counsel

Companies around the world are facing new kinds of lawsuits and regulatory action based on their historic and current conduct and the degree to which it might be contributing to climate change. Academic Thom Wetzer and advisors Euan McVicar and board advisor Vicky Moffatt help untangle what those risks are and how they can be addressed.Don't forget to listen and susbcribe to The Pinsent Masons Podcast for more regular news and analysis from Pinsent Masons.

We investigate the impact of the seemingly sudden leap in AI capability on in house legal teams. The way organisations perform legal functions will change. Hear how from Alastair Morrison, Lucy Shurwood and Orlando Conetta of Pinsent Masons, and University of Miami law professor Michele DeStefano.

Tom Tayler of Aviva Investors and Euan McVicar of Pinsent Masons explain how the systems that govern the whole world's financial activity can be re-tooled to help create political, social and economic stability in the future, which means tacking climate action.

We hear how big the stakes are from climate scientist Tamsin Edwards; former UK minister and COP negotiator Douglas Alexander talks us through the COP process, and Michael Watson of Pinsent Masons tells us what businesses should be doing to prepare for a lower carbon future.

We talk to WorldCC's Sally Guyer, Trakti's Luigi Telesca and David Halliwell of Pinsent Masons about the business intelligence byproducts of smart contracts.

After a bruising 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic and its attendant lockdowns caused sickness, anxiety and economic uncertainty for many, we look ahead to 2021 and ask seven business, law and politics experts for a reason to be cheerful, something we might have overlooked that will help us to believe in better times ahead. Alastair Campbell, John Amaechi, Vicky Pryce and others discuss the resilience of youth, changing attitudes to national debt, the humanisation of the workforce and progress on climate action.

We hear from Alastair Campbell, former communications adviser to UK prime minister Tony Blair, and Sean Elson of Pinsent Masons about operating under pressure while dealing with depression; and from Philip Aiken of Barclays and Kate Dodd of Pinsent Masons about practical measures companies can take, and about creating a ten point charter to help them do better. The workplace and mental health are closely intertwined – work can be the cause of problems, and issues can express themselves in the workplace. Organisations that don’t improve their culture are at risk of failing their people, while those that do change have a chance to attract the best people for longer.

The latest phase of the Black Lives Matter movement has helped to clarify for a lot of people how pervasive and powerful structural racism is. It affects organisations even when they are not overtly racist. We explore how this is likely to affect your business, and what steps you can take to address it, and look at the duty of all of society to educate themselves on the nature of racism, with organisational psychologist John Amaechi, Pinsent Masons lawyer Alexandra Aikman and diversity and inclusion consultant Stuart Affleck of Brook Graham.

Companies are redefining what they are for: away from solely delivering shareholder returns and towards a central 'purpose'. But can that approach survive the coronavirus crisis? Do purpose-led companies have a better chance of thriving, even at the most testing of times?

How can GCs help their companies prioritise coronavirus issues? And what can we learn from past crises to help make better decisions in this one?