Students who graduate from our nation’s top law schools are too often faced with a choice between morality and prestige when making decisions about their career paths. When the best law schools facilitate a job search that feeds into the “Biglaw or bust” mentality, success is measured by the number of graduates who have secured positions at firms serving clients that represent the worst of the worst when it comes to our planet’s ongoing climate crisis.
A new report from Law Students for Climate Accountability set out to answer a simple question: how much do the Vault 100 firms contribute to climate change? The answer is, as you might imagine, a lot.
Biglaw firms continue to be a “hotbed of fossil fuel activity.” Here’s a breakdown of what that means: per LSCA, Vault 100 firms conducted 518 representations in cases exacerbating climate change, facilitated $2.89 trillion of fossil fuel transactions, and received millions upon millions in compensation for fossil fuel lobbying between 2019 and 2023.
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As noted in the report, “The legal profession finds itself at an inflection point. Do we keep lining the pockets of climate villains, or do we reckon with our moral imperative to get on the right side of history?”
LSCA’s work has not been in vain — this year, in the group’s fifth annual Climate Scorecard, a record number of Biglaw firms received “A” grades (seven). Of course, the majority of other Vault 100 firms received grades of “D” and “F,” but let’s concentrate on the positive news. So, which firms performed the best compared to their peers? Take a look at the firms that did the best in LSCA’s latest scorecard.
(Image via Law Students for Climate Accountability)
Law firms also had the chance to receive “A+” grades, but for that, a firm must do the following:
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(A) Sign the Law Firm Climate Responsibility Pledge to stop taking on new fossil fuel industry work, continue to take on renewable energy industry work and litigation to fight climate change, and completely phase out fossil fuel work by 2025, or (B) Meet the criteria for an A in every category without utilizing the “one-time safe harbor”
No firm has earned an “A+” grade yet.
Congratulations are due to Akerman; Cooley; Davis Wright Tremaine; Foley Hoag; Schulte Roth & Zabel; Sheppard Mullin; and Wilson Sonsini for earning grades of “A.” On the flip side of the coin, 34 firms earned grades of “D,” and 42 firms earned “F”s. Yikes.
LSCA’s full report and 2024 Climate Scorecard can be found here.
Good luck to Law Students for Climate Accountability as they do their best to make Biglaw do better, to make the future better for all of us.
2024 Climate Scorecard [Law Students for Climate Accountability]
These Law Firms Were Named ‘Worst Offenders’ For Their Fossil Fuel Client Work [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.