In a constantly changing global climate, corporate governance and sustainable development issues are taking on increasing importance at entities of all kinds. Successfully addressing these issues helps inspire trust and enables businesses to be more efficient and socially responsible. 

To ensure our clients remain at the forefront of best practices, Garrigues has a group of corporate governance and sustainable development experts who lead the way in their respective fields and practice areas: corporate and commercial law, sustainability consulting, HR consulting, labor and employment law, tax, criminal law, environmental law, etc.

Our multidisciplinary approach and global perspective enable us to offer comprehensive tailored advice, providing clients with the value and security that this specialty requires.

Acting in a coordinated fashion, our corporate governance and sustainable development team keeps permanently abreast of new developments in these areas, proactively proposing ideas and client solutions. We offer legal advisory and consulting services to leading private sector companies (listed and unlisted) as well as public bodies and agencies, both at home and abroad.

In the field of corporate governance, our advisory services include the design and drafting of good governance codes (bylaws, shareholders’ meeting regulations, board and board committee regulations, codes of ethics and codes of conduct) and their periodic review and adaptation to bring them into line with the applicable requirements and recommendations; assistance in preparing annual corporate governance reports and annual compensation reports; drafting of directors’ compensation policies; and introduction and adaptation of corporate governance principles at unlisted companies, among others. We also provide general legal assistance in preparing shareholders’ meetings and helping our clients deal with and resolve all types of corporate governance-related issues.

In light of the interrelation between corporate governance and sustainable development, we offer a varied catalog of services. We provide advice on the scope of legal obligations and good governance recommendations for managing bodies in relation to sustainability and on future trends; on organizational and operating formulas to ensure clients act with due diligence in this area; to companies, investors and asset managers on environmental, social and good governance matters; on sustainability reporting and transparency as part of periodic reporting obligations; and on how to integrate purpose and stakeholder interests into governance models.

We also advise on sustainability policies (whether comprehensive or by specific area: environment, climate change, social, etc.) and on creating and applying evaluation methodologies and risk control mechanisms, analyzing the materiality of these risks with a view to disclosing them to shareholders and other stakeholders and assisting with these disclosures (providing support in preparing non-financial information statements, sustainability reports, etc.). We monitor trends in order to identify emerging sustainability risks and we advise on how to introduce technical sustainability concepts in corporate scorecards.