In 2021 and 2022, as the market continued to focus increasingly on environmental, social, and governance issues, government financial regulators across many independent agencies strongly indicated that increased enforcement relating to ESG is on the horizon, while private plaintiffs filed novel securities class actions based on ESG issues.
Given the rapid development of legal ESG issues in the financial services industry, market participants must remain cognizant of the potential legal risks relating to ESG, and take adequate precautions to protect themselves against both government investigations and private civil litigation. This article analyzes the emerging framework of ESG regulation and litigation in order to advise market participants of the upcoming legal risks relating to ESG issues.

With increased regulatory scrutiny and the emergence of employee activism, companies have experienced an elevated risk of trade secret disclosure from current or former employees acting as putative whistleblowers. In this episode, Aaron Goodman (Partner, Los Angeles) discussed key factors companies should consider in balancing their trade secret interests against the protections afforded to whistleblowers, with a focus on recent whistleblower laws across the globe.