Iria Calviño leads Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer’s regulatory and environmental practice in Spain alongside co-heading the firm’s ESG offering for EMEA. With nearly two decades of experience, Calviño is a recognised expert in ESG regulations, decarbonisation, and renewable energy, playing a pivotal role in Spain’s energy transition. Notably, Calviño is advising a major global infrastructure and energy fund on establishing an investment platform to create a pan-European initiative for biomethane and biogas projects.
Calviño spearheads the firm’s Energy Transition Hub, which helps boost knowledge on the energy transition and low-carbon strategies. Calviño is also deeply engaged in external efforts to drive sustainability, leading the Sustainability Hub of EJECON and serving on the ESG committee of SpainCap, where she contributed to a publication on the application of sustainability regulations within the private equity industry.
Calviño’s commitment extends to pro bono work, including collaborating with the Ocean Born Foundation to raise awareness and develop innovative funding mechanisms to protect and restore the ocean.
Juan Carlos Hernanz leads Cuatrecasas’ environmental and climate change practice and plays a pivotal role within the firm’s sustainability team. Drawing on his extensive expertise in public law, Hernanz advises clients on a broad range of issues, including circular economy initiatives, renewable energy projects, the green transition, and sustainable mobility strategies. Notably, in the renewable energy sector, Hernanz is guiding a major client through an innovative project to convert animal and foodstock waste into biomethane.
A strong advocate for sustainable practices, Hernanz is a prominent speaker at industry events, where he addresses critical topics such as groundwater protection, the sustainable management of water resources, and strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of the road transport sector.
Eoin Cassidy leads Mason Hayes & Curran LLP’s energy team and is a prominent figure in Ireland’s renewable energy sector, with a longstanding track-record delivering projects which increase the share of clean power on the Irish grid. His recent work includes advising on Ireland’s leading wind and solar farms, highlighting his pivotal role in advancing renewable energy initiatives.
Internally, Cassidy leads the firm’s sustainability team, Green MHC, which organises an annual Green Month featuring targeted events and initiatives to promote environmentally sustainable practices within the firm and the wider community. Cassidy also hosts the firm’s annual energy conference, Financing Ireland’s Energy Transition, and curates the firm’s energy sector update series, providing clients with key insights into industry developments. Cassidy also serves as a board member of the Irish Wind Energy Association, contributing to policy and advocacy efforts in the sector.
Bringing over 25 years’ of experience in energy law and project matters, Thomas Chellingsworth at AKD is highly sought-after among leading renewable power developers, grid operators, and public authorities. Offering clients a particular focus on the energy transition, Chellingsworth is an expert on green energy project development and regulation, market modernisation, and energy-related contracts.
Entrusted for his expertise at the intersection of EU and Belgian energy law, Chellingsworth is representing the Flemish regional government in multiple civil cases regarding the EU-mandated phase-out of the net billing method and its impact on solar panel owners with smart meters. Chellingsworth is also representing the Flemish electricity distribution system operators in a legal challenge against the energy regulator’s tariff methodology.
A notable thought leader, Chellingsworth spoke at the annual conference by Sustainability College Europe and the Flemish Energy Law Association regarding the offshore wind tender landscape and elsewhere authored an academic chapter on the subject within the 2023 Energy Law Annual. Reflecting his leadership within academic discourse, Chellingsworth is also a member of the editorial board of the Environmental and Energy Law Journal.
Corentin Chevallier, a partner at UGGC Avocats, is highly regarded for his expertise in advising companies on the decarbonisation of their operations, with a particular focus on biodiversity protection. Within the renewable energy sector, Chevallier counsels both public and private entities on the development of innovative projects hydrogen, wind, and solar power proejcts.
Notably, Chevallier is advising on the pioneering Terrega project, which aims to establish a major underwater infrastructure dedicated to hydrogen transport. Chevallier is also a recognised authority in carbon compensation, regularly advising clients on regulatory frameworks governing greenhouse gas offsetting.
Chevallier’s thought leadership in environmental law is evidenced by his contributions to specialised publications, including the Bulletin of Industrial Environmental Law. Since 2012, he has been a regular speaker at annual conferences addressing legal issues related to air quality. Further demonstrating his commitment to sustainability, Chevallier is a member of the scientific committee of Atmos’Fair, an organisation dedicated to improving air quality and reducing polluting emissions.
Joseph Chun heads Shook Lin Bok’s ESG practice and specialises in environmental law, often assisting clients with environmental compliance matters. He also regularly works with local green civil society groups on advocacy projects and reports.
Chun is a professor and a member of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law in the National University of Singapore, where he teaches and researches environmental and ESG law. He has written widely on environmental law and ESG issues and is the lead author of Singapore’s only environmental law textbook.
Demonstrating his leading role as a sustainability champion in the region, Chun serves as a member of the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s ESG and impact committee, the Asia Pacific regional board of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Environmental Law, and the Mandai Wildlife Group’s Animal Welfare and Ethics Committee.
Alexandra Ciarnau at DORDA Rechtsanwälte GmbH is a key advisor across a wide range of sustainability-related matters, assisting major clients in drafting and reviewing sustainability-conscious ESG policies, delivering comprehensive risk analyses of green claims, and developing green compliance strategies including literacy programmes which help deliver accurate green claims. Ciarnau also draws on her expertise in digitalisation to advise clients in assessing data flows used in green tech initiatives and sustainability reporting.
Beyond her client work, Ciarnau is committed to advancing sustainability in the wider community. Ciarnau acts as a pro bono advisor to the Circular Economy Forum Austria and is involved with various research projects, including Kreisbau, which seeks to improve ESG standards in the construction industry through the use of AI. Notably, Ciarnau contributed as a co-author to several publications in the ESG field, including a chapter on greenwashing in the Practice Handbook of Sustainability.
Richard Cockburn serves as the head of Womble Bond Dickinson’s energy group and is a leading figure in the renewable energy sector. His expertise spans a diverse range of projects, including onshore and offshore wind farms, renewable heat, solar, wave and tidal energy. Currently, Cockburn is engaged with progressive organisations to drive practical advancements in the energy transition, focusing on initiatives such as carbon capture and storage projects in the North Sea and various UK hydrogen projects.
His thought leadership is prominently featured in the firm’s publications on energy and sustainability, with notable contributions including articles on the UK’s pathway to a hydrogen economy and the broader green transition.
Cockburn also serves as a member of the Association of International Energy Negotiators, further reflecting his active involvement and influence in the energy sector.
As head of the cross-practice compliance and sustainability group at Gorrissen Federspiel, Camilla Collet provides deep experience across sustainability and ESG matters. Collet regularly assists leading corporates and multinationals on regulatory, governance, and contractual issues concerning novel ESG, sustainability, and green developments, demonstrating a particular focus on the implementation of CSRD, CSDDD, and EU Deforestation Regulation into Danish law. Key clients include major multinational beverage company Carlsberg, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, and sustainability solutions advisor Green Finance Institute.
Collet makes a leading contribution within the firm’s thought leadership output, co-authoring insights into topics including corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence. A key teacher on sustainability and corporate practice, Collet presents for law students at the University of Copenhagen on embedding sustainability and led the firm’s seminar series on sustainability at work.
Helping share best practice within the legal community, Collet serves on the Association of European Lawyers’ ESG committee. As a key voice within major organisations, Collet served on an Association of European Lawyers panel on ESG and spoke at a Danske Bank event on sustainable finance.
A leading authority in transactional construction and engineering solutions for the energy, industrial, and infrastructure sectors, Stacey Collins at Pinsent Masons frequently advises clients on climate change, net zero, and sustainability strategies, with a particular emphasis on carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen projects.
He manages crucial client relationships across the energy sector, including with Drax Group and Ameresco, and advises on major UK energy projects such as Carlton Power’s low-carbon hydrogen initiatives and Viridor Energy’s carbon capture programmes.
Stacey’s influence extends beyond his transactional expertise. He co-drafted the NEC’s X29 Climate Change clause and is deeply involved in various decarbonisation taskforces, including those led by Government departments and the UN’s Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative. He also serves on the ICE’s Decarbonisation Board and was the sole legal contributor to the Carbon Reduction Code for the Built Environment, developed by the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction’s Achieving Net-Zero taskforce.
A prominent speaker and writer on sustainability, Stacey hosted a roundtable at the UK CCUS & Hydrogen Decarbonisation Summit.
Simon Colvin leads Weightmans’ national environment team and its energy and utilities sector. Applying his knowledge from developing the firm’s own internal ESG programme, he guides clients in establishing their ESG frameworks and policies. He also serves in a non-executive capacity on a client’s ESG committee.
Colvin’s experience ranges from advising on the development of a biodiversity net gain programme for rural landowners and acting for a developer on the construction of an Ecotown to advising landowners and developers on solar, wind and hydro schemes. He also has expertise in green leases, government subsidy schemes on renewables, and the EU ETS, CRC scheme and climate change agreements.
His thought leadership extends to regular speaking engagements and publications on the aforementioned topics, including a column in the Environmentalist and a quarterly legal update webinar for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment on greenwashing.
His commitment to the sector is underscored by his membership of The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and his active involvement in the Broadway Initiative’s net zero programme and the development of the Environment Act 2021 with DEFRA.
Alongside her role as head of the real estate and future energy team at TLT, Maria Connolly is also the executive board sponsor for the firm’s sustainability strategy. In this capacity, she set the ambitious target for the firm to become a carbon-neutral organisation by 2025 and engaged Carbon Intelligence to develop a robust sustainability programme. She has also established several key partnerships with organisations such as Forest Green Rovers, the Green Britain Foundation, The Chancery Lane Project, and Action Net Zero.
Connolly advises on a broad range of property matters including the acquisition of subsidy-free and operational sustainable energy generation and green infrastructure projects. Her expertise in sustainable energy is evident in her involvement in numerous wind, solar, biomass, and hydro projects.
Beyond her legal work, she acts as mentor for the RegenSW Entrepreneurial Women in Renewable Energy programme and has been appointed to the City of London Law Society Energy Committee. She is also a frequent speaker at industry events, discussing topics such as subsidy-free project modelling, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and multi-technology projects.
Senior counsel at Alta Batalla, Roberto Cordero focuses his practice on environmental and ESG law. He has over 20 years of experience advising national and international clients, including corporates, public institutions and NGOs across Central and South America, on issues related to environmental compliance, due diligence and impact studies with a strong emphasis on sustainability. He also acts for clients in major environmental litigation.
Cordero’s track record includes the promotion of new administrative environmental procedures for sludge valorisation, wastewater treatment options, and air emission treatment regulation, improving clients’ environmental performance and economic productivity.
Alongside his membership in the Environmental Commission of the Costa Rican Bar Association, Cordero also serves as coordinator of the Environmental and Sustainability Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Costa Rica (AMCHAM).
He has written and spoken on sustainability-related matters such as environmental protection in Costa Rica, wastewater management, and ESG and tourism, among many other topics.
With over 15 years of experience in environmental law, Lina Correa heads up Gomez Pinzon’s energy, environment, and natural resources practice group. She specialises in environmental compliance, audits, permitting and sanctions, as well as advising clients on environmental projects and activities both nationally and internationally.
The impact of her expertise can be seen in her recent work: She supported IDOM in determining the potential of using CCUS in the country, contributing to Colombia’s climate change mitigation goals; advised on the constitution of a natural reserve to protect “The Moyas” moor near Bogotá; and assisted in conducting an audit for beauty company Yanbal to verify compliance with environmental regulation, identify potential environmental risks as well as mitigation solutions and sustainable practices, thereby bolstering its ESG profile.
Outside of her client work, Correa often shares her knowledge of environmental issues through speaking engagements, such as recently participating in a webinar discussing water reuse and conservation in the region.
Francisco Santos Costa leads Cuatrecasas’ energy transactional and project development practice in Portugal and regularly assists major foreign investors in significant renewable energy transactions. Santos Costa also possesses extensive experience in projects related to decarbonisation and the energy transition. A key client is Onex Renewables, for whom he handled the acquisition from EDP Renewables of a 221 MW onshore wind portfolio.
Dedicated to driving change beyond the firm, Santos Costa frequently speaks and writes on environmental and ESG-related issues. He moderated the panel Renewable Project Development at Energyear Portugal 2024 and co-authored the energy chapter of the publication Environmental Simplex. Santos Costa is also a member of renewables association APREN, an important player in the development of energy policies in the country.
An expert counsel and head of the environmental law department at Bruchou & Funes de Rioja, Pablo Crimer leads the firm’s recently launched ESG Platform for Climate Action and Sustainable Businesses. Crimer has 17 years’ experience providing corporations with legal advice on environmental and natural resources matters. He often advises companies on green financing and ESG projects, bringing past experience in climate change and sustainable development research whilst working with the Secretary General’s Climate Change Support Team of the United Nations.
Crimer is also a part-time professor on environmental issues in business transactions at Universidad de San Andrés, and regional vice chair for Latin America at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy.
He frequently speaks at events on topics ranging from the energy transition, ESG reporting and sustainable finance to climate change and Argentina’s role in the current global context. Argentina’s daily business newspaper El Cronista featured him in an article on sustainability in 2024, and he also acted as judge for the BritCham Argentina Award for Leadership in Sustainability 2023.
Assunção Cristas co-heads VdA’s environment and climate change practice group and heads the firm’s ESG integrated services platform.
A prolific author and speaker, Cristas participated in a range of conferences discussing topics relating to sustainability, environment, and ocean law, speaking at the COP28 and COP29 summits and at the UN Global Compact. Additionally, Cristas authored a myriad of articles exploring sustainability-related topics, such as climate change regulations in Portugal.
With an extensive academic background, Cristas is an associate professor at Nova School of Law, where she coordinates the master’s degree on ocean governance and directs the Nova Ocean research centre dedicated to ocean studies.
Guillaume Croisant, who coordinates Linklaters’ cross-practice ESG offering in Brussels, is highly sought-after among major domestic and multi-national clients regarding ESG liability risks, ESG compliance, and sustainability regimes.
Croisant serves as ESG counsel to major multinational companies, assisting in drawing up greenwashing and supply chain compliance programmes; in navigating EU sustainability regulations and regimes; and advising on the impact and implications of directives on green claims and waste.
Helping boost the firm’s thought leadership output, Croisant regularly contributes his insight to articles, podcasts, and webinars on green topics including ESG disputes, greenwashing, and supply chain due diligence. Leaving an impact within the legal community, Croisant co-authored a seminal textbook on Belgian law and sustainability and contributed to the UN Global Compact’s guide for general counsel on corporate sustainability.
A notable speaker in the space, Croisant lectures on ESG at the University of Brussels and has spoken on ESG matters before organisations including the Belgian Federation of Enterprises. To help encourage green practices within the legal sector, Croisant is a member of the policy taskforce of the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations.
Mathias Dantin is a key member of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer’s ESG team and a recognised expert on energy and infrastructure regulatory and public law. With a strong focus on the energy transition and decarbonisation sector, his broad experience spans renewable assets, EV charging infrastructure, and carbon capture projects. Dantin also advises developers on energy and decarbonisation strategies for new battery gigafactories.
Internally, Dantin is the founder of the firm’s Paris Decarbonisation Club and externally serves as co-founder of the French Association for Negative Emissions and as an active member of the Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables, which unites major players in the renewable energy sector.
A prolific thought leader, Dantin regularly produces newsletters on green energy topics for clients. He has also published several insightful articles, including guidance for industrial clients on advancing decarbonisation through clean electricity procurement.
Rhys Davies, ESG & impact expert at Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, brings over 15 years of experience in advising private equity firms, public companies, and project sponsors on the design and implementation of ESG strategies. Supporting the delivery of vital global climate projects, he brings deep expertise on sustainable finance disclosures, green taxonomies, ESG reporting, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Davies is a leading contributor to the firm’s thought leadership offering, co-authoring insights on topics including the Financial Conduct Authority’s sustainability disclosure requirements and the impact of the COP28 summit across transition finance, the carbon markets, and public- and private-sector decarbonisation commitments.
With a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge and an FSA credential from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Davies provides technical and commercial know-how to support clients’ green transition journeys. He leverages this perspective as a regular contributor to industry discussion, having moderated a panel discussion on climate strategy evolution at the PEI Infrastructure Investor Forum and speaking on global ESG regulation at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ ESG and Compliance conference.
