Play Recording

California Climate Bills: Practical Steps Companies Should Take Now

Webinar | October.19.2023 | 9am - 10am (Pacific Daylight Time)

Webinar - Recording available

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed the country’s most comprehensive corporate climate disclosure laws to date. Two of the new laws—Senate Bill 253 and Senate Bill 261—require over 5,000 U.S. public and private companies doing business in California to disclose a wide-range of climate-related information about their businesses, operations, and supply chains, while the third bill—Assembly Bill 1305—requires significant disclosure regarding the use of “net zero,” “carbon neutral” and similar claims, including with respect to voluntary carbon offset purchases.

Many companies will need to take significant steps to prepare for these new requirements, and even companies with developed climate programs will need to make sure that their current initiatives meet the specific California requirements. In both cases, companies will need to ramp up efforts well ahead of the disclosure deadlines under the laws.

Join Orrick partners Patrick Ferguson, Ashley Walter and JT Ho as well as Orrick’s Climate Advisor, Avani Panchal, for a discussion on:

• Key features of the new laws
• Interplay with the SEC's proposed climate rule
• How California will likely approach enforcement
• Steps companies should take now to prepare

MCLE Credit (1.0 Credit) is available for this program.

CLE Credits Available: Y

Insights

Our Speakers

Patrick Ferguson Partner, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy

San Francisco

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D:+1 415 773 5762
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Renewable Energy
Solar Energy
Wind Energy
Offshore Wind
Energy Storage
Energy & Infrastructure
Energy
Power

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Patrick Ferguson Partner

San Francisco

Patrick is described by Chambers USA as “an excellent writer”, an “expert on the California power market", and “experienced across a range of assets including solar and geothermal power plants and transmission lines.” He works on commercial and regulatory challenges involving the transition of the electric power grid to renewable resources, and represents some of the country’s largest power producers in wholesale and retail energy and capacity market transactions.

Patrick advises solar, wind, geothermal, and energy storage project sponsors on site acquisition, transmission, and power purchase agreement negotiations. He also assists producers of new technologies that combat climate change, including renewable fuels, carbon capture, and carbon offset credits, in structuring novel commercial transactions.

J. T. Ho Partner, Head of Orrick’s Public Company Advisory practice, Corporate Governance, Capital Markets

San Francisco

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D:+1 415 773 5624
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Corporate Governance
Capital Markets
Compensation & Benefits
Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG)
Responsible Business

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J. T. Ho Partner, Head of Orrick’s Public Company Advisory practice

San Francisco

Corporate Governance. J.T. counsels companies on Board and committee oversight, assessment, independence and composition issues. He also helps companies to develop effective shareholder engagement programs and governance-related disclosures, and understand and consider the views of proxy advisors, shareholders, and other stakeholders in their decision making.

Securities Reporting. On the securities front, he focuses on advising clients in connection with securities offerings, proxy statements, periodic SEC reports, stock exchange listing obligations, stock repurchases and the sale and reporting of securities by insiders. He regularly counsels companies on difficult and emerging disclosure issues and provides training on disclosure best practices.

Shareholder Activism. J.T. has helped many companies successfully navigate shareholder proposals and activism campaigns through leveraging his knowledge of shareholder perspectives and securities laws. He also helped many companies identify and address potential activist threats through adopting reasonable defenses, collaborating on effective shareholding engagement and communication strategies and addressing risk oversight issues.

Executive Compensation and Succession Planning. J.T. advises on compensation committee matters and related disclosures, executive transitions, and succession planning. He also advises on the design of cash and equity incentive plans, and has helped over a dozen companies remediate failed or low "say on pay" votes.

Sustainability. J.T. helps companies identify and understand the risks and opportunities associated with sustainability initiatives and disclosures and incorporate sustainability into their overall business strategy and executive incentive plans. More recently, he has helped companies navigate ESG-focused proposals and activism issues and the growing anti-ESG movement.

J.T. serves on the advisory board of The Corporate Counsel and hosts “J.T. Ho's Fast Five,” a monthly podcast on The Corporate Counsel where J.T. covers the five new things public companies ought to know each month. J. T. also hosts "Understanding Activism," a podcast on Deal Lawyers and Corporate Counsel that focuses on different perspectives on shareholder activism.

He has presented at notable conferences sponsored by The Corporate Counsel, the Securities Regulation Institute, The Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Society for Corporate Governance, the ABA, the Practical Law Institute, Compensation Standards, Practical ESG, National Investor Relations Institute and NASPP. He is recognized as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500, as one of the Ones to Watch® Best Lawyers in America, and was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

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

As a Climate Advisor at Orrick, Avani is a key member of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Group. She provides non-legal advice to clients on their climate-related governance, strategy, risk management, and relevant targets and metrics, as well as the identification of relevant ESG issues for a range of companies, the collection and analysis of key climate- and ESG- performance metrics, the preparation of climate- and ESG-related disclosures, and research and writing on emerging climate and ESG trends. She also advises and assists clients in conducting greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventories, including identifying emissions boundaries and material categories of Scope 3 GHG emissions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Avani worked as a Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change (CS&CC) Manager at ERM (2021-2023) and as an Air Quality/Sustainability Senior Consultant at Ramboll U.S. Corporation (2012-2021). At both these consulting firms she worked on a variety of air quality and GHG compliance, permitting, and reporting projects, along with ESG due diligence using International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards and Equator Principles. Avani has developed GHG inventories and evaluation of GHG mitigation strategies for a variety of sectors, including city/county municipalities, corporations, airports and seaports, logistical warehouses, and oil and gas facilities.

She has managed and developed Climate Change and Sustainability Reports and Plans, Energy Conservation Plans, and Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, using reporting frameworks such as GHG Protocol, Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), CDP, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Avani has robust expertise with GHG analysis and reporting, strategy development, policy and regulatory review, and peer benchmarking, for projects located both within the United States and internationally.

Avani has a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (2011) and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, India (2007).

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
Wind Energy
Solar Energy
Energy Storage
International Trade and Investment
Mergers and Acquisitions
Technology Companies Group

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Ashley Walter Partner & Chief Sustainability Officer

Seattle

As Orrick’s Chief Sustainability Officer, he also oversees Orrick's strategic sustainability initiatives. Ashley focuses on developing innovative methods of supporting clients in achieving ESG objectives, including designing novel systems to manage supply chain risk; forming and guiding management-level ESG Steering Committees; and helping clients address the ESG requirements of major customers by engaging with those customers on our clients’ behalf.

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 four years, and is heavily involved in ESG initiatives at Stanford Law School, where has served as a moderator at the Stanford Directors' College, has lectured on ESG at business law courses, has taught the course “Corporate Social Responsibility,” and will be teaching the course “Law and Governance in ESG Strategy” in the spring of 2025. Prior to Orrick, Ashley founded the corporate social responsibility practice at a Silicon Valley-based law firm.

How I help clients:

Customer ESG Engagement: Engaging with clients’ major customers in response to ESG inquiries or requirements
Supply Chain Risk: Developing responsible sourcing systems for high-risk supply chains
ESG Goal Management: Advice regarding retaining, modifying or withdrawing ESG goals
ESG Steering Committees: Forming and guiding management-level ESG Steering Committees
ESG Due Diligence: Conducting ESG due diligence with a focus on post-closing program building
Quarterbacking Compliance: Creating and advancing a project plan for regulatory compliance, including working with third-party consultants