Joshua Lichtenstein Discusses Importance of Tracking State ESG Policies in Private Equity Law Report

In The News
October 5, 2023

Private Equity Law Report (PELR) conducted an interview with Joshua Lichtenstein, partner in the firm's employment, executive compensation and employee benefits group and head of the firm’s ERISA fiduciary practice, focused on the importance of tracking state ESG policies and highlighting the firm’s 50-state website that monitors ESG developments in each state, including legislative actions, executive measures and multi-state coalition efforts.

Joshua told PELR that, “Ropes & Gray’s ESG website and extensive summaries of all the bills and other actions are designed to help clients understand what is happening substantively. Reading bills, public statements or other policy changes may not always reveal what the state aims to achieve. Ropes & Gray’s summaries therefore go beyond the words to reach the actual context - what is occurring and what the state is focusing on.”

When asked how the site can be useful, and what clients should be looking for, Joshua said, “CCOs and GCs should also be very careful and thoughtful in how they respond to inquiries from states. I recommend that clients refer to the ESG website if they receive any questions from a state so they can see what is happening in that state before responding. For example, a client may have a compliance certificate from last year certifying compliance with a state’s applicable laws. Still, the same compliance certificate with identical language could have a different meaning this year or next because of new state laws or how existing state laws are interpreted. What may appear to be a relatively innocuous annual compliance certificate could now be part of a screen to determine whether the state will terminate an asset manager.”

Learn more from Joshua in his interview here, and check out the firm’s state-by-state tracker here.