--- title: Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL) description: The Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL) is a community of legal leaders who are using the practice of law to have a positive impact on people and the planet, and to accelerate the just transition. image: https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2-A-Keynote_-Law-in-an-Age-of-Transformation-1.jpg --- [Insights](https://gailnet.org/insights/) / [Event](https://gailnet.org/category/event/), [Video](https://gailnet.org/category/video/) / ## [Law in an Age of Transformation – Keynote by Marcel Fukayama](https://gailnet.org/law-in-an-age-of-transformation-keynote-by-marcel-fukayama/) ## Insights ![](https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2-A-Keynote_-Law-in-an-Age-of-Transformation-1.jpg) [Event](https://gailnet.org/category/event/), [Video](https://gailnet.org/category/video/) ## Law in an Age of Transformation – Keynote by Marcel Fukayama November 18, 2025 [Global](https://gailnet.org/region/global/), [Latin America](https://gailnet.org/region/latin-america/) **GAIL Summit 2025** ### **Overview** This keynote session addressed the widening gap between traditional legal frameworks and the rapidly evolving social, environmental, economic, and technological conditions shaping the modern world. [Marcel Fukayama](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfukayama/?originalSubdomain=br) highlighted how existing legal systems—rooted in stability, precedent, and shareholder-primacy ideology—are struggling to provide relevant, effective responses to crises such as climate change, growing inequality, misinformation, and disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence. Against this backdrop, Marcel introduced the global movement of “impact lawyers” who are reimagining the role of law from reactive risk-mitigation to proactive system design, advocating for legal structures that embed purpose, stakeholder accountability, and transparency into corporate governance. The urgency, Marcel argued, is not simply to update legal tools, but to redefine the legal profession itself as a driver of inclusive, regenerative, and future-fit economic systems. **Law Struggling to Keep Pace with Global Realities** * Marcel argues that traditional legal frameworks are increasingly misaligned with contemporary challenges, including the climate crisis, systemic inequality, economic stagnation, and technological disruption. * These frameworks—rooted in stability, precedent, and tradition—are poorly equipped to address rapidly evolving global risks, which has resulted in a “crisis of relevance” for the law. **Critique of the Friedman Doctrine** * A central critique focuses on Milton Friedman’s influential 1970 essay _“The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”_, which established a shareholder-primacy paradigm: that a corporation’s primary duty is to maximise profits for its owners. * Marcel suggests this model has contributed to rising inequality (highlighted by the wealth accumulation of individuals), reinforces short-term profit orientation, and undercuts the potential for law to serve broader social, environmental, and economic justice. **Crisis of Faith in Legal and Economic Institutions** * Because the legal system often reflects and amplifies shareholder-centred capitalism, there is diminishing trust in its ability to deliver equitable outcomes or to support systemic change. * Furthermore, technological disruption—especially AI—is creating a “hangover effect”: poorly constructed contracts, automated legal processes, and commoditisation of legal services that undermine traditional legal value. **Law as a Catalyst for Transformation** * Rather than viewing law purely as a risk-management tool, the speaker proposes using it proactively to design better systems. This requires a mindset shift among legal professionals: from “harm mitigation” to _systemic shaping_. * Lawyers should evolve into “legal systems architects”, actively crafting legal norms that drive long-term, socially inclusive outcomes. **Movement of Impact Lawyers & Transformational Governance** * Marcel highlights a growing network of _impact lawyers_ (including B Lab–aligned practitioners) working to institutionalise legal frameworks that embed purpose, accountability, and transparency into business: * **Purpose**: embedding mission-aligned goals into corporate charters, not as optional add-ons. * **Stakeholder Governance**: requiring decisions that consider not just shareholders, but employees, communities, environment, etc. * **Transparency & Reporting**: measuring, managing, and disclosing impact. **Legal Innovation in Practice** * **Benefit Corporation Laws**: According to the speaker, more than 50 jurisdictions now have legislation enabling benefit corporations — legal entities that must balance profit with public benefit. * **Capital Markets Innovation**: The “Big Corp Index” (a B Lab-linked project) is mentioned, aimed at publicly traded companies that meet impact-oriented criteria — a vehicle to mobilise capital aligned with transformational purposes. * **Public Procurement**: Lawyers in this movement are also pushing for public procurement reforms so that government purchasing power rewards positive social and environmental externalities, not just price. **Economic Policy & Institutional Infrastructure** * Beyond formal legal changes, this group of lawyers is building an ecosystem for impact: intermediaries, policy platforms, and capital flows that support businesses driven by purpose and accountability rather than profit alone. * Marcel underscores that legal change is not just about compliance: it’s about enabling a regenerative, inclusive economic system. **Call to Action** * Marcel invites legal professionals in the room to engage: to shift their identity from conventional lawyer to “architect of legal systems change.” * There is an appeal to collective action to reshape the rules of the game — through law, governance, and institutions — to build a legally grounded, equitable, and sustainable future. Resources [Slides – Law in an Age of Transformation](https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2-B-Keynote%5F-Law-in-an-Age-of-Transformation-.pdf) ## Topics [AI](https://gailnet.org/topic/ai/), [Benefit Corporations and B Corps](https://gailnet.org/topic/benefit-corporations-and-b-corps/), [Blended Finance](https://gailnet.org/topic/blended-finance/), [Business and Human Rights](https://gailnet.org/topic/business-and-human-rights/), [Business for Good](https://gailnet.org/topic/business-for-good/), [Climate and Environment](https://gailnet.org/topic/climate-and-environment/), [Corporate Governance](https://gailnet.org/topic/corporate-governance/), [Development Finance](https://gailnet.org/topic/development-finance/), [ESG](https://gailnet.org/topic/esg/), [Impact Finance](https://gailnet.org/topic/impact-finance/), [Innovative Legal Structures](https://gailnet.org/topic/innovative-legal-structures/), [Legislation and Regulation](https://gailnet.org/topic/legislation-and-regulation/), [Mission driven businesses](https://gailnet.org/topic/mission-driven-businesses/), [Philanthropy](https://gailnet.org/topic/philanthropy/), [Public Interest Litigation](https://gailnet.org/topic/public-interest-litigation/), [Steward Ownership](https://gailnet.org/topic/steward-ownership/), [Systems Change](https://gailnet.org/topic/systems-change/) ## Author [← Back to all Insights](https://gail.staging-001.dev/insights/) ## Related Insights * [![Law, Community and Collective Power – Keynote Plenary by Tetiana Sakharuk](https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2-A-Law-Community-and-Collective-Power.pptx.jpg)](https://gailnet.org/law-community-and-collective-power-keynote-plenary-by-tetiana-sakharuk/) [Event](https://gailnet.org/category/event/), [Video](https://gailnet.org/category/video/) ## [Law, Community and Collective Power – Keynote Plenary by Tetiana Sakharuk](https://gailnet.org/law-community-and-collective-power-keynote-plenary-by-tetiana-sakharuk/) November 13, 2025 Tetiana Sakharuk, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Ukraine and a former practising lawyer, delivered an address highlighting the vital role of the legal profession and business leaders in strengthening the “social” pillar of ESG — particularly during times of crisis. Read more here. [See More →](https://gailnet.org/law-community-and-collective-power-keynote-plenary-by-tetiana-sakharuk/) * [![Innovating Legal Impact: Pioneering Impactful Structures and Contracts. Keynote by Aunnie Patton Power](https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Keynote-Aunnie-v1-1-scaled.jpg)](https://gailnet.org/innovating-legal-impact-pioneering-impactful-structures-and-contracts-keynote-by-aunnie-patton-power/) [Event](https://gailnet.org/category/event/), [Video](https://gailnet.org/category/video/) ## [Innovating Legal Impact: Pioneering Impactful Structures and Contracts. Keynote by Aunnie Patton Power](https://gailnet.org/innovating-legal-impact-pioneering-impactful-structures-and-contracts-keynote-by-aunnie-patton-power/) May 30, 2024 This keynote address highlights the imperative for lawyers to guide clients proactively to incorporate impact considerations into their organisational structures and processes. Aunnie explores how embedding these elements fosters innovation and enhances the effectiveness of legal contracts in driving social & environmental impact. [See More →](https://gailnet.org/innovating-legal-impact-pioneering-impactful-structures-and-contracts-keynote-by-aunnie-patton-power/) [![back to top](https://gailnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-01-at-11.13.05-AM-e1701447750880.png)](#single-page-top) ## Become a Member [**JOIN**](https://gailnet.org/?page%5Fid=73) [**LOG IN**](https://gailnet.org/?page%5Fid=9) ## Your cart (items: 0) __Products in cart__ | Product | Details | Total | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ----- | | | Available on backorder Previous price: Discounted price: / / − ＋ | Save | | Subtotal £0.00 Taxes and discounts calculated at checkout. 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