According to Anna Kuusniemi-Laine, ESG attorney and partner at the law firm Castrén & Snellman, the spring of 2024 was an exciting time for anyone who followed the progress of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive of the European Union.
ESG denotes responsibility and sustainability in terms of the environment, society and governance.
Among other things, the due diligence directive makes major businesses identify and reduce their negative impact on human rights and the environment in both their operations and their value chains. The directive also obliges major businesses to ensure that their strategies and operations are in line with the 1.5-celsius goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The directive has elicited a great deal of discussion, both for and against. For Kuusniemi-Laine, it is a favourite example of regulation that revolutionises business operations.
“The premise is that large companies can no longer ignore the negative external effects of their activities. Businesses must consider and attempt to minimise these effects,” Kuusniemi-Laine says.
In Finland, it can be easy to avert your eyes and think that everything is in order in terms of, for example, the realisation of human rights.
“Recently, problems have been identified in Finland as well.”
A career in questions related to European Union law
Forging a career in EU law, Kuusniemi-Laine is currently particularly active in matters related to sustainability and responsibility.
She also played a key role in Castrén & Snellman’s recent donation: the law firm endowed a considerable sum to the University of Helsinki in 2023 for the establishment of a professorship in sustainability law.
“Businesses have to bear more and more responsibility for the negative effects of their operations, whether they relate to the environment, the climate or human rights. In our practical work, we have noticed that there is an urgent demand for legal expertise in regulation.”
Training and education are needed to safeguard skills. Sustainability law is a relatively new field compared to many other legal fields. It solves ecological problems or human rights violations that take place on the market or through human activity – in other words, it governs the same field for which the due diligence directive lays down its own rules for businesses.
“Ideally, university budgets would ensure sufficient funding for up-to-date education. But developments in this field have been so rapid that traditional funding structures have fallen behind, and so private funders such as ourselves are needed.”
What is the role of lawyers in the sustainability transition that societies are currently undergoing? The expertise of lawyers must evolve along with the changing world.
“Some people may think lawyers dig up problems and slow down development. I believe that skilled lawyers can speed up positive change. However, such a role requires in-depth expertise.”
The world has changed before
Kuusniemi-Laine is an alum of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Law, graduating with a Master of Laws degree in 1994 in the middle of the recession.
“The University provided me with a solid competence base. Finland was at another turning point, much like we are now experiencing in the middle of the sustainability transition and the regulation it requires. At the time, the transformation was about Finland’s EU membership and the subsequent regulation.
In 1995, a year after Kuusniemi-Laine’s graduation, Finland joined the EU. With her new master’s degree, she left for Amsterdam to complete a postgraduate degree in EU law.
“In other words, the world and the requirements of legal expertise have changed rapidly in the past too, just as they are changing now.”