Bron
Goodwin
Global 50 law firm Goodwin announced the launch of the firm’s Impact & Responsible Investing (IRI) Practice.
The formation of the IRI practice leverages Goodwin’s position as one of the only leading law firms with demonstrated expertise across asset classes. The practice launches as investors are striving to be more mindful of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues without sacrificing investment returns.
“Impact and responsible investing is among the fastest growing, most prolific forms of global financial innovation,” said David M. Hashmall, Chairman of Goodwin. “With the depth of experience needed to design successful structures and systems for impact and responsible investing, Goodwin is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of investors and investment managers alike in this increasingly important space. The establishment of our IRI practice speaks to Goodwin’s history of being on the forefront of unprecedented trends that affect our clients.”
Worldwide assets in the ESG space increased more than 60% between 2012-2014, rising to $21.4 trillion from $13.3 trillion1 and outpacing growth among all professionally managed assets. Goodwin maintains a strong client foothold in the global sustainable investment market, which includes participants at banks, development finance institutions, FinTech companies, foundations, fund-of-funds, investment funds, insurance companies, retirement funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments and wealth management firms.
Co-led by partners Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn, Laura Hodges Taylor, Liz Roberts and Elise Zoli, Goodwin’s IRI Practice is organized on a cross-disciplinary basis and brings together experience across the full spectrum of asset classes and practice areas to identify and address the unique legal issues that arise in this space. These include ESG and sustainability certification, B-corp formation and certification, ILPA compliance, FCPA compliance, tax exempt status, ERISA and others. The team also understands the challenges of measuring ESG and other impact metrics.
Goodwin is an active member of Global Impact Investing Network, a platform for like-minded investors to meet and take part in activities that build the impact investing industry from a practitioner’s perspective.
1 Global Sustainable Investment Review, 2014
