Rebecca Perlman

Herbert Smith Freehills

A secondment to the government of Sierra Leone early in her Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) career saw Rebecca Perlman help manage the legal implications of the Ebola crisis. It was this that sparked her interest in the growing area of ESG and impact assessment.

She has since launched, and heads, the firm’s impact investment and social finance practice,advising clients such as BlackRock, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a global private equity firm and a global financial institution on their ESG strategies.

As Covid-19 hit, Perlman feared the wind might be taken out of the sails of the ESG agenda as organisations grappled with existential threats. In fact, the pandemic has accelerated the conversation. Perlman has been busier than ever, helping clients as they come to terms with the shifting expectations around the role of their business in society due to Covid-19, and working on the design and launch of HSF’s global ESG Tracker, which now provides ESG-related monitoring services to more than 2,000 clients.

This year will see more new developments. HSF has introduced a firm-wide ESG leadership team leading the consolidation of decades of ESG-related expertise and enabling the firm to offer a cross-disciplinary offering. There are some other key developments in the pipeline too: it will be as busy a year as ever for one of Herbies’ most talented young associates.