Legal Innovation for Impact: A Global Perspective

As the urgency of global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality intensifies, legal systems and actors are being called upon to innovate in ways that drive meaningful impact. Across jurisdictions, lawyers, policymakers, judges, and civil society are rethinking how law can serve as a catalyst for systemic change – whether through regulatory reform, strategic litigation, capacity-building, or navigating political resistance.

This panel will bring together voices from across regions to explore how legal innovation is shaping the global impact agenda. From government-led initiatives, innovative instruments and structural nuances to advocacy strategies in politically constrained environments. The discussion will highlight both common challenges and region-specific approaches. It will also examine how developments in one part of the world influence and interact with others, underscoring the increasingly interconnected nature of impact-driven legal work.

Moderator: Mathew Hobbs (Charles Russell Speechlys, GAIL UK)

Speakers:

• Julie Ryan (Impact GC, GAIL North America) — North America
• Daniela Solís Navarro (Ritch Mueller, GAIL Latin America) — Latin America
• Matthew Kasdin (IIX, GAIL Asia Pacific) — Asia Pacific
• Niels de Waele (A&O Shearman) — Europe

Whose Impact Is It Anyway?

Impact investing in Africa now sits within a global market exceeding US$1.57 trillion in assets under management, yet it is shaped by a fundamental tension. International capital allocators impose ESG metrics and conditionalities reflecting Western priorities, while African recipients confront local imperatives (poverty, energy insecurity, infrastructure deficits) that those frameworks frequently overlook. If the same capital flowed into Africa without externally designed compliance architectures, would development outcomes improve or deteriorate?

This panel will interrogate whether the global sustainability apparatus consisting of DFIs, multilateral lenders and private capital is genuinely enabling African-led development, or perpetuating a dynamic in which access to finance is conditioned on standards the recipients had no meaningful role in setting. Drawing on examples in Mozambique, Ghana and South Africa, we ask: whose impact is it anyway?

Speakers:

• Jessica Blumenthal (ENS Africa, GAIL Africa)
• Tiago Arouca Mendes (MDR Advogados, GAIL Africa)
• Prince Osisidian (Succa Africa, GAIL Africa)
• Dr Mao Amis (African Centre for Green Economy)

Unlocking Positive Tipping Points: How Lawyers Can Accelerate Systems Change

Systems do not always change gradually. Across climate transition, social equity and responsible business, relatively small interventions can sometimes help push a system across a threshold beyond which change becomes self-reinforcing and accelerates. These “positive tipping points” create an important question for lawyers: where can law provide the leverage that helps promising change move from the margins towards widespread adoption?

This interactive workshop will open by introducing the concept of positive tipping points and drawing on practical examples of how they can accelerate systems change. Participants will then work in small groups to identify areas where change is currently constrained, the conditions that could unlock a tipping point, and the legal mechanisms that could help activate it. From contracts, governance and finance structures to regulation, disclosure and other legal tools, the session will explore how lawyers can move beyond responding to change and actively help create the conditions for it to accelerate.

Speaker: Ben Dixon (Systemiq)

Format: Interactive workshop

How can impact investing be compatible with fiduciary duties?

Sponsored by Travers Smith LLP

As impact investing grows in prominence, fiduciary duties are being fundamentally re-examined. Long understood as an obligation to maximise financial returns, there is a growing movement that fiduciaries can – or must – evolve beyond that approach to bring ESG and broader impact objectives into their investment mandates. Against a backdrop of shifting regulatory frameworks both in the UK and beyond, significant legal uncertainty remains.
 
David Rouch, a prominent legal thought leader, will open the session by introducing the topic and the legal theory behind it. The panel will then explore how fiduciaries such as company directors and pension trustees navigate these issues, including the quantification of systemic risks, before turning to how the law (particularly on sustainable investment and finance) is evolving across a number of jurisdictions. Join us to unpack the theory, the practice and the tensions shaping the future of fiduciary responsibility.

Moderator: Jonathan Gilmour (Travers Smith, GAIL UK)

Speakers:

• David Rouch (Freshfields)
• Gina Pereira (Dana Stewardship Advisory, GAIL North America)
• Sophia Omar (Impact Investing Institute)
• Olivia Woodward (Bates Wells)
• Phil Bartram (Travers Smith)