Former Zurich Insurance Group general counsel duo, launch platform, help measure law firm ESG performance

Former Zurich Insurance Group general counsel duo, launch platform, help measure law firm ESG performance

In addition to enabling law firms to measure their progress, the new offering gives them the ability to match their clients with their firms.

The startup was founded by two former general counsel of Zurich Insurance Group, help general counsels compare law firms' environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.

Adrian Peyer and Yannick Hausmann have launched a data analytics platform through their Zug-based startup. Law firms can also use Impactvise to accurately measure their own ESG progress and match GCs with law firms whose ESG performance reflects their company's values.

Hausmann told Legal Futures that general counsel could use the tool to rank and review their current panel firms, or when considering engaging a new firm, which could lead to a client win for an ESG-forward law firm.

In addition, law firms that fall behind could miss out as corporate clients begin to focus more on ESG issues. Nokia's legal team launched an equity, inclusion and diversity scorecard system in May 2021 to evaluate its six-panel law firms and Swiss pharma giant Novartis agreed on diversity and inclusion targets with its law firm advisers in 2020 and will withhold 15 percent of their fees if they are not met.

The Impactvise's Platform metrics are adapted from the World Economic Forum's stakeholder capitalism metrics to measure performance in matters such as remuneration, net-zero commitments, diversity and inclusion and data protection. The data is then analyzed using the 0-3 rating system.

It uses algorithms to evaluate publicly available data, requiring no manual entry from law firms themselves and natural language processing to analyze the Data analyze law firms' standards and values as described on their websites and in the media.

Hausmann noted: "As companies adapt to meet the sustainability expectations of their stakeholders and adhere to regulations and requirements, so too do they expect the same from their business partners and service providers. These partners are primarily lawyers and Impactvise provides the framework for effective engagement on sustainability."

In last week's Impactvise, published a study on the Sustainability Performance of more than 500 law firms around the world, including the top 200 largest law firms in the US and UK. The study found that the average law firm's performance was 'poor' and the best firms still had room for improvement in a number of areas, including conflicts of interest and health and safety.

Among the top performers were mostly UK magic circle firms and big US firms, with the best UK performers covering broader and more advanced topics than their US counterparts. They were more focused on selected topics like net-zero commitments, greenhouse gases, diversity, risk and governance.

According to Peyer, "the sustainability race is on at every level and the United States is catching up."

Among the top performers were also some small boutique law firms, which Impactvise said had more likely adopted client acceptance policies aligned with ESG criteria, such as not accepting clients that were polluters.

Co-founders of Impactvise have been self-funding the startup until now, but will seek outside funding in the first quarter of next year.