Fiduciary Duty in the Age of Climate Risk
When: Monday, April 28, 2025, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Where: Virtual - via Zoom
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The London Financial Regulation Seminar is an inter-collegiate and inter-disciplinary group of experts led by CCLS and our Institute of Banking and Finance under the leadership of Professor Rosa M. Lastra and Dr. Daniele D’Alvia.
On Monday 28 April, Mr. David Rouch will discuss his last research paper titled “The individual action dilemma: do fiduciaries’ legal duties require them to consider action aligned with society-wide sustainability efforts, even if they cannot show a measurable benefit?” Prof. Rosa M. Lastra will chair the event, and Prof. Iris Chiu will be the discussant.
Mr. David Rouch, an international financial services regulatory lawyer, became a partner in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2004. He has advised the full range of financial market participants, dealing with some of the market’s most prominent regulatory bodies. He is particularly known for his work on law and finance culture. In 2021, David co-authored ‘A Legal Framework for Impact: Sustainability Impact in Investor Decision-making’, a prestigious international report commissioned by the UNEPFI, the PRI, and The Generation Foundation answering the question, are institutional investors legally permitted or required to tackle sustainability challenges such as climate change. He is the author of The Social Licence for Financial Markets: Reaching for the End and Why it Counts (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) which looks at how financial markets depend on social solidarity and how to shape market participants’ practice in ways that strengthen it.
Prof. Iris Chiu is a Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL). She joined the faculty in 2009. She is an academic member of the Centre for Ethics and Law and advances public and stakeholder engagement under the Centre’s umbrella in relation to the law and regulation of the banking, financial and fintech sectors, the crypto economy and governance of business generally. She has published extensively in the areas of corporate governance and financial regulation. She is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and in 2020, a senior Scholar at the European Central Bank’s Legal Research Programme. She previously taught at the School of Law, King’s College and the University of Leicester.
David’s research paper addresses the ‘individual action dilemma’ facing fiduciaries such as company directors and pension trustees under English law. As climate and sustainability threats increasingly jeopardise the economic systems upon which all market participants depend, directors and trustees may be uncertain whether their fiduciary duties permit action that supports broader societal sustainability efforts to tackle those threats – especially when individual impact seems minimal or immeasurable. Through a detailed analysis of legal duties, including recent case law, the research paper argues that fiduciary responsibilities do not preclude such action. On the contrary, duties often extend over longer time horizons and require consideration of systemic threats within the current legal and regulatory context. Approaching fiduciary obligations from the perspective of climate change and wider sustainability challenges, the research paper makes a compelling case for proactive engagement by market participants as a route to long-term financial resilience.