December 12, 2023

A Balancing Act: Navigating the Corporate Landscape and ESG Litigation in a Changing World Webinar Recap

With increased regulations in Europe and litigation on the rise in North America ESG continues to be an important topic in Canada and around the world. This webinar will dive into why everyone is talking about ESG, why ESG is important, and what professional liability insurance professionals should know about disclosures, regulations, and litigation trends. In addition, attendees will learn what companies are currently doing like decarbonizing strategies and what the consequences will be for a lack of ESG commitment.

The moderator from this webinar, Robyn Campbell, provided some commentary on this session, sharing key takeaways in the Professional Liability field. See the remarks below.

Why is this topic important for professional liability practitioners?

For professional liability practitioners whether carrier or broker side, it is essential to have an awareness of emerging risks, such as those presented by the current ESG focus. Without it, you cannot fully identify the risk landscape of a client.

What are the top takeaways from this webinar discussion?

When it comes to climate or the E in ESG, the regulatory environment is complex and in a state of flux — clients must proactively understand and prepare for the disclosures that will be required of them.
Underwriters will be looking to see how a company’s public face/behaviours around ESG align with their long term corporate values.
The new mandatory reporting regimes may open up the proverbial floodgate for the plaintiffs bar with the low hanging fruit being greenwashing claims

If someone is interested in learning more about this topic are there other resources you would recommend for more information?

Many of the leading law firms have ESG groups and are producing a lot of good articles/podcasts

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Meet the Speakers

Robyn Campbell, Managing Director, National FINPRO Leader
Marsh Canada

Robyn has been in the insurance industry since 2012. Prior to joining Marsh in 2020, Robyn was Vice President at a large international insurance company, where she lead a group of lawyers and other claims professionals in the specialty casualty claims group. The specialty casualty claims group were responsible for complex claims in all specialty areas including D&O, E&O, Employment Practices, Crime and Surety. Prior to joining the insurance industry, Robyn was in house counsel at an auto manufacturer, managing litigation during a particularly challenging time involving numerous class actions. Robyn began her legal career at Cassels, where she articled and was an associate in the commercial litigation department.

Robyn also acts as an instructor at the Directors Education Program sponsored by the Institute of Corporate Directors at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and other leading business schools in Canada.

Lukas Brochard, Divisional Director Climate Risk and Resilience
Howden Group Holdings

Lukas leads the decarbonisation advisory practice at Howden Holding Group, supporting the firms vision to de-risk the transition to a low-carbon resilient world. He has been a sustainability consultant for close to 19 years, developing programmes in MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) to track sustainable finance for international organizations as well as supporting corporates in creating their sustainability strategy, targets and supply chain engagement in order to achieve their objectives, including for the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Lukas also created and managed the CDP assessment methodology and team as well as creating specific R&D projects through predictive emissions analysis, thus enabling analysis of a company’s ambition to transition to a low-carbon economy. He later lead the entire disclosure, assessment and disclosure R&D teams at CDP.
Lukas holds a degree in biology and a Masters with a thesis focussing on the indicators of sustainability, how they are created and used for decision making.

Mary Delli Quadri, Attorney, Partner
Gascon

Mary focuses her practice on commercial, civil and insurance litigation, class actions, product liability and professional liability. She is currently involved in product liability, securities and insurance class actions.
Mary has amassed solid experience in errors and omissions (E&O), directors and officers (D&O), defence and coverage litigation, at all levels of Quebec and Ontario Courts.
She is also a past lecturer at the Faculty of Law of McGill University and Universit de Montral. She is fluently bilingual in English and French and also speaks Italian.
Mary acts for major domestic and international insurers.

She is involved in PLUS Professional Liability Underwriting Society and has been an active Committee Member in Quebec since 2013.

Andrew Poss, CFA, Vice President, Executive Lines, National Risk Strategy Director
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance

Andrew is a Vice President and National Risk Strategy Director at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. Andrew is responsible for the commercial management liability business in Canada including Directors and Officers, Fiduciary Liability, Employment Practices and Crime/Fidelity. Andrew has been underwriting in the Canadian insurance marketplace for 18 years developing expertise in public and private company exposures with a focus on ESG matters across all industry classes.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queens University and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.