Building the Case: How Lawyers are Leading on Sustainability

Andrew McLaughlin is the VP-Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Sustainability Lead at Major Drilling Group International Inc. (TSX:MDI). He previously served as a diplomat at the Canadian embassies in Havana and Mexico City, and was a Canadian foreign service officer from 2006-2015. Andrew is on the Board of New Brunswick's economic development agency, ONB (a Crown corporation), where he serves as Vice Chair, and is an Editorial Board member of Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In recent years, Andrew has been making the case for lawyers to lead the charge on "ESG" (i.e. environmental, social and governance practices) in their organizations and is a highly sought after presenter on this topic. In 2023, he chaired the Canada-wide ESG Summit.

His op-eds in the Globe and Mail (Canada's leading newspaper) regarding the ESG ratings industry and sustainability standards received wide interest, and he has been featured in various publications including the Toronto Star and The Hill Times, among others. In 2024, he was the winner of the Canadian General Counsel Award (Mid-Market Excellence), and in in 2018, he was named a Lexpert Rising Star for leading Canadian lawyers under 40, and as part of the Banff Forum's "Emerging Canadian Leaders Under 40". Andrew holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Allison University, an LLB from the University of New Brunswick, and an LLM in International Business Law from the University of London (QMUL/UCL).

Conor Chell is one of the top ESG and Sustainability lawyers in Canada with over 20 years of experience. At KPMG Law, Conor is a Partner and the National Leader of ESG Law, heading up a collaborative, cross-functional and multi-disciplinary team of sustainability professionals who advise clients on ESG regulation, strategy and program development, ESG activism and disclosure risks, supply chain risk assessment and reporting and ESG policy development and training. Conor holds a Global Competent Boards Designation (GCB.D) in ESG, a Certificate in Sustainable Finance and ESG from UC Berkeley School of Law and has been named a Top 40 Lawyer in Canada under the age of 40 by Lexis/Nexis. Conor has been twice named a Canadian Environmental Thought Leader by Mondaq, speaks frequently across North America on ESG topics, and has been featured in the Globe and Mail, the Financial Post, the Toronto Star, Canadian Lawyer, Investment Executive, Advisor's Edge, and numerous other publications.