Vanessa Jakovich

Freshfields

When Vanessa Jakovich came back to Freshfields from maternity leave in 2019, she returned not just as a partner, but as the firm’s most sought-after adviser on ESG matters. During her time away, corporate scrutiny on environmental matters had intensified, alongside pressure on businesses to tighten up their governance rules and act more sustainably. As Freshfields’ corporate clients agonised over how best to up their game, they picked up the phone and called Jakovich.

A former Freehills lawyer in Australia, Jakovich had intended to spend only a year in London. Over a decade later, her career has flourished. Initially bringing her projects experience to Freshfields’ environmental litigation group, she started to carve out her own non-contentious practice on Fleet Street. Last year her knowledge proved invaluable to clients such as Accenture, EDF and Mars, and she also aided energy company SSE on its management-sponsored net zero resolution, a first in the FTSE 100. On call for Accenture, she was behind the establishment of one of the word’s largest carbon removal offset portfolios, a crucial piece of work given clients’ development goals. For any business with ESG on the to-do list, Jakovich is the lawyer to contact.