SEC Climate-Related Disclosure Rules

Webinar | April.09.2024 | 9am - 10am (Pacific Daylight Time)

Webinar - Recording Available

Highlights, Data Insights and Key Action Items

The SEC has finalized its long awaited climate-related disclosure rules. The final rules are consistent with what we believe institutional investors were looking for with respect to climate-related risk oversight and have many of the concessions public companies were seeking. Companies who have already aligned their sustainability reporting with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures will benefit from consistency between those recommendations and the final rules. However, many public companies across the board will likely have to invest time and resources to prepare for the final rules. The final rules also provide for complex financial statement disclosure requirements, which financial reporting teams will have grapple with.

Join Orrick partners Ashley Walter and J.T. Ho as well as Orrick’s Climate Advisor, Avani Panchal, for a discussion on:

Key features of the new rules
Interplay with the California climate laws, CSRD, and voluntary reporting practices
How the SEC will likely approach enforcement
Steps companies should take now to prepare

Contacts

Ashley Walter Partner & Chief Sustainability Officer, Responsible Business, Capital Markets

Seattle

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D:+1 206 839 4333
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Technology & Innovation Sector
Responsible Business
Capital Markets
Renewable Energy
Energy Storage
International Trade and Investment
Mergers & Acquisitions
Technology Companies Group
Data Centers

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Ashley Walter Partner & Chief Sustainability Officer

Seattle

Ashley is a co-founder and past chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Law Committee of the ABA Business Law Section, has co-chaired the Practising Law Institute's annual ESG program for the last six years, and is heavily involved at Stanford Law School, where he has served as a moderator at the Stanford Directors' College, lectured at law school classes, and taught law school courses, most recently in the spring of 2025. Prior to Orrick, Ashley founded the corporate social responsibility practice at a Silicon Valley-based law firm.

Avani Panchal Climate Advisor, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance

New York

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D:+1 212 506 5280
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Capital Markets
Corporate Governance
Responsible Business

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Avani Panchal Climate Advisor

New York

Avani Panchal is a Climate Advisor at Orrick, serving as an integral member of the firm’s Responsible Business Solutions group. She provides non-legal guidance to clients on climate strategy, risk management, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets, and supports the identification of sustainability and climate change issues across sectors. Avani’s work includes analyzing climate and ESG performance data, preparing disclosures, advising on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, and researching emerging sustainability trends.

Within Orrick, she collaborates closely with the Chief Sustainability Officer on the firm’s own climate initiatives, including GHG reporting, assurance, and integrating sustainability into client pitches and proposals.

Avani’s prior roles as Corporate Sustainability & Climate Change Manager and Air Quality/Sustainability Senior Consultant involved leading air quality and GHG compliance projects, ESG due diligence aligned with IFC Performance Standards and the Equator Principles, and developing mitigation strategies for industries ranging from municipal governments to oil and gas facilities. She has prepared sustainability reports and plans using frameworks such as the GHG Protocol, TCFD, CDP, and GRI.

She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, India.